Silver Snake
by Artemis1000
Summary: At short notice is announced that students will be regularly resorted at the beginning of their fourth year. To get this system running, starting with the 4th years all are now sorted anew. Guess who ends up in Slytherin…? HP/DM, BZ/NL, others
1. Prologue

Author: Artemis (artemis1000@gmx.net)   
Disclaimer: Harry Potter, plot and all her characters belong to JKR and her publishing companies, which's names I don't know. No copyright infringement intended. Don't bother suing, my "fortune" isn't worth the trouble. I only own the idea to this story.   
Timeline: In their fifth year, I placed it 1995/1996   
Rating: G (all R)   
Chapter: 1/15   
Pairings: Here non (altogether Draco/Harry, Blaise Zabini/Neville, minor Pansy/Seamus, Hermione/Ron, Goyle/Crabbe)   
Summary: At short notice is announced that students will be regularly resorted at the beginning of their fourth year. To get this system running, starting with the 4th years all are now sorted anew. Guess who ends up in Slytherin…?   
Author's note: I'm suffering from writer's block at the actual instalment of my vampire novel series and I've read way too much HP/DM fanfics since I read the first around ten days. I'm kinda addicted to it now and still struggle with being over the age HP was intended for. Then I'm in a gloomy mood and have to get some story out of my system, although I don't have any particular story idea in mind. Because it gets a pain in the neck, I decided I'll now just write whatever comes into my mind and if it's not too bad post it. Pathetic, huh? ;-)   
Author's note 2: I'm sorry for all grammar and spelling mistakes, English isn't my native language.   
Warnings: Mild swearwords. Don't read if you dislike Slytherins and/or Harry, Neville, Seamus. After the first couple of pages House Gryffindor is only secondary star. I just can't help fancying the bad guys. Well, it's slash, some kissing and tame smooching between boys. Maybe a bit OOC, I couldn't find enough about Blaise and Pansy. What concerns the other characters my only excuse is that this is the first HP story I dare to publish and my second at all.   


**Silver Snake**   
**_By Artemis (Artemis1000@gmx.net)_**

Chapter 1: Prologue   


"What does it means to be a Slytherin?" "What makes a Slytherin a Slytherin?" 

This questions were always in his mind, echoing like some rotten echo, to remind him of what he'd lost. But the worst weren't the words. When he closed his eyes, then he saw the faces of his best friends in front of his mental eyes. And whenever he thought about them, a scene that had burned itself into his memory was played like a movie in his mind. Just that he's a regular… 

The worst about the questions he's forced to ask himself all the time weren't the words. He could handle harsh, mean words, he could handle reproaches. People always had used words year after year endless year to taunt him, to break him. What stung so deeply were the emotions in his friends faces, the hurt in faces that had become as familiar for him as the faces of the siblings he'd never had. 

Ron had been furious at first, when they got the result of the resorting. Not at him. No, he'd been furious at everyone and everything and unfortunately he's part of the world. He's a hothead and he loved his best friend for it. While he's usually calmer - or tried to pretend it, at least - in this moment he'd been fully able to understand his fury and helplessness. For several days when they're informed about the resorting Ron had ranted, embraced the fury and made himself almost believe they could still do something about their fates. 

Hermione was the total opposite. When they're informed, she'd been calm and apparently unmoved. Then she tried to make Ron calm down and encourage him at the same time, always the loving girlfriend and comforting, caring friend. She kept herself busy, using Ron's anger and his own need for consolation as distraction - although he hadn't understood it then, in the rush of events. Hermione was the bravest of them. While they're reeling from one emotional extreme into the next, she was strong for their sake. 

In some odd way, he thought now, she's the one of them who's most of a Gryffindor. Hermione, the gentle, soft-hearted, clever girl who's most comfortable in the library and now lived in the Ravenclaw tower… 

They'd reacted very different, him numb from shock and then panicking - because he knew he couldn't persuade the Sorting Hat a second time to make him despite better knowledge Gryffindor - Ron furious and Hermione being there for both of them. But for all of them the decision had still been something surreal. They new they would be resorted in a week and they soon found out that they couldn't do anything about it. But they never actually thought about it becoming the hard, painful reality, even daily life. The decision was made, but putting this into action was far away… 

Then the day was there when all students and teachers met in the Great Hall for the sorting and "handing over". Exactly one week after the evening of the announcement, that would change his whole life, turn it upside down… 

tbc… 


	2. Resorting

Author: Artemis (artemis1000@gmx.net)   
Disclaimer: Harry Potter, plot and all her characters belong to JKR and her publishing companies, which's names I don't know. No copyright infringement intended. Don't bother suing, my "fortune" isn't worth the trouble. I only own the idea to this story. The magical snake race Geleafa is my idea - I was too lazy to search the net for a fitting one.   
Timeline: In their fifth year, 1995/1996   
Rating: PG-13   
Chapter: 2/15   
Pairings: Hermione/Ron, Goyle/Crabbe   
Summary: At short notice is announced that students will be regularly resorted at the beginning of their fourth year. To get this system running, starting with the 4th years all are now sorted anew. Guess who ends up in Slytherin…?   
Author's note: I'm suffering from writer's block at the actual instalment of my vampire novel series and I've read way too much HP/DM fanfics since I read the first around ten days. I'm kinda addicted to it now and still struggle with being over the age HP was intended for. Then I'm in a gloomy mood and have to get some story out of my system, although I don't have any particular story idea in mind. Because it gets a pain in the neck, I decided I'll now just write whatever comes into my mind and if it's not too bad post it. Pathetic, huh? ;-)   
Author's note 2: I'm sorry for all grammar and spelling mistakes, English isn't my native language.   
Warnings: Mild swearwords. Don't read if you dislike Slytherins and/or Harry, Neville, Seamus. After the first couple of pages House Gryffindor is only secondary star. I just can't help fancying the bad guys. Well, it's slash, some kissing and tame smooching between boys. Maybe a bit OOC, I couldn't find enough about Blaise and Pansy. What concerns the other characters my only excuse is that this is the first HP story I dare to publish and my second at all.   


**Silver Snake**   
**_By Artemis (Artemis1000@gmx.net)_**

Chapter two: Resorting - Monday   


Then the day was there when all students and teachers met in the Great Hall for the sorting and "handing over". Exactly one week after the evening of the announcement, that would change his whole life, turn it upside down… 

--- 

Headmaster Dumbledore stood in front of the House tables, looking good-natured down at the body of students. He could just hope everything would work out the way he expected - hoped - it to. His plan had been controversial from the beginning, but this was too important. And in the end, it's for the students best. He only did what he believed to be best for them. If they just could see that… 

Many were nervous, many others excited or upset, some just bored and some others were close to going into hysterics. 

"Dear students, I assume all of you understand why you're all here this evening - apart from enjoying the feast and having a good time - but to be sure I'll explain it again. 

In the last months and years, more students told the prefects, their teachers or the leaders of their Houses that they're unhappy with the choice of their House than before. Not because the Sorting Hat made a mistake, not at all. In the course of our life, we change. We grow, develop, we learn new things and some of our beliefs turn out to be prejudices or plain wrong, we make new experiences, some painful, some happy. Some of us have had a very hard life before they came to Hogwarts, others were kept far away from the hard reality and only had only here a chance to mature. The muggle-born of you will know the best how much life can change within a very day! One morning you lived like a usual Muggle child and in the evening you're here, in a totally different world you only knew from fairy-tales… 

It's only natural that we change and that the needs we had when we joined Hogwarts we don't have necessarily some years later. And so the vast majority of you wouldn't be sorted now into the same House than when you came to Hogwarts. And please trust us, the teachers, as hard it may be to get settled, you'll be more happy in your new House. Because the students who're there with you fit your needs now, not your needs some years ago. A new House gives you the opportunity to a new perspective, new friends, new alliances, a new understanding about the different Houses and a new way of life. We won't anymore keep you at the stage of development of your joining, now we support you like we're supposed and strive to. 

Frankly, we never dared to make this step in the past. We knew that many of you would react negative and we didn't had the heart to separate you from your home away from home. But now we're forced to make a decision. It makes the teacher staff very sad to watch so many of the students become Death Eaters. If we can save only one soul from believing that he or she's better off among the Death Eaters than amidst us, then it's worth it. Although, let me please emphasize this, we always were aware that at some point this step would be inevitable. And even if you now think of yourselves as the unfortunate ones, you aren't. Instead, you're very fortunate, you're the pioneers. 

A few words to the procedure: The concerned grades will be called in alphabetical up, starting with grade four. If you're sorted into the House you're at, please help the newcomers to settle in. If you're sorted into a different House, you join them at their table - don't forget to fetch your luggage at your old House's table - and follow the instructions of your new prefect as well as your new House's head. At the tables are also scarves lying, please exchange your scarf if necessary. 

Should you've forgotten anything at your old dorm, your prefect will gladly help you. Also, if you've questions, need anything or just are too shy to approach someone at your new House and make friends, the prefects and House heads will be of assistance. You'll get your new timetables likewise from your prefects. Next week Monday and Tuesday you can get used to your new timetable, Wednesday is the first day of Christmas vacation. And… everyone who's transferred into a different House as well as the prefects are for the rest of the week exempt from lessons! 

But enough talk now! I can see that you're eager to find out what's your new House - or want to get over with it", Dumbledore added wryly. "Good luck that you get the House you deserve and enjoy the banquet the house elves organized to speed the bonding up!"   


Harry, Ron and Hermione sat together with Ginny, Neville and Seamus at the Gryffindor table. Though the atmosphere was tense all over, they tried to joke the nervousness and feeling of dread away. Little did they know that this would be the last time they sat at this table in this constellation, all brave and loyal Gryffindors, examples for their House. 

"I still can't believe he's serious!" Hermione shook her head sadly, hoping against hope she would wake up every moment and this had been just a nightmare. Now, that they almost had to say goodbye, she couldn't any longer distract herself. She'd to face the cold, harsh reality now. But she's a Gryffindor - even if she wouldn't be one for much longer - and it wasn't like them to despair. So she tried to see the whole thing positive - and make her friends cheer up. It wouldn't do them any good to spend the last minutes together angry or say… 

Seamus had had the same line of thought. "Well, let's see the bright side!", he forced himself to say cheerful. "It's not even sure that we'll… be resorted into different Houses", he couldn't make himself say separated. "After all, our characters didn't changed utterly. We only… matured. I'm curious which House you want to join if you've to leave Gryffindor and if you would belong to the people who would like to be resorted. I don't have any real preference besides Gryffindor, but I think Hufflepuff isn't too bad. Ravenclaw is cool, but I'm not clever enough for them." 

"That's not true, Seamus. You're clever. And if the Searching Hat notices that you like Ravenclaw and if you fit to them, then you'll be sorted into Ravenclaw." 

"Thanks, Hermione. But what about you? Oh, come on, people, we'll never get this conversation going if you're afraid to say something!" 

Ron puffed his chest fastest up and said as dignified and indignant at the same time as possible, "I'm not afraid! I believe I'll either be sorted into Gryffindor again or into Slytherin." 

"Why do you want to be a Slyth of all Houses? I mean, I respect if you want to join this House, but I got the impression you… strongly dislike Slytherin", quipped Hermione. 

The Weasley almost choked at his butterbeer. "Urgh! Me wanting to be a Slyth? *Yuck*! I didn't meant that I want to become one, I just said it's likely. I mean, let's face it, I'm neither wise and clever like a Ravenclaw nor patient and just like a Hufflepuff. And I do have my mean days, especially when a Slytherin crosses my way…" 

"I would like to join Ravenclaw. In fact, I was a bit disappointed when I wasn't sorted into Ravenclaw at the first time. But that's only if we're parted anyways. If you, Ron, Harry, can stay at Gryffindor, I'll rather do without the chance at studying among the Ravenclaws than loosing you. Anyone else for Ravenclaw?" 

"Me!", said Ginny beaming. With Hermione she handled the resorting best. "But I also wouldn't mind joining Hufflepuff. Although their status is low, they're good people, I admire them for that." 

"That's noble. I'm proud at my little sister!" Ron ruffled Ginny's hair lovingly. 

Neville Longbottom sighed heavily, already resigned. He knew he would be put into the House he'd least similarity with and where he would be liked the least. Which was… "With my bad luck the Sorting Hat will surely put me into House Slytherin!" 

"That won't happen, don't worry, Neville. You don't have always bad luck. And I mean, you don't have so much in common with the Slytherin. Look at our arrogant, cold-hearted, sarcastic, uncivilized Slytherin classmates, like Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Parkinson, Zabini… Can you see any similarities there to yourself?" 

"The only one who's silent till now are you, Harry. Are you so deep lost in thoughts?" 

"Cheer up, Harry, please. No matter how hard life is, it's too precious to waste it with being desperate." 

"You are the only one of us who'll be accepted at every House because you're the Boy Who Lives. I know that's no great consolation because they won't befriend with you because of you, but because of the title you have. But it's a start." 

"Slytherin." 

"Huh?" 

"It's Slytherin." 

"*What*?!", shouted Ron panic-stricken. 

"Calm down, Ron, I don't mean I want to become a Slytherin or am a fan of Slytherins. I just believe that Slytherin is the house to which I'll be sorted into - I know it with 99 percent certainty - so I try to see the bright side." 

"You hit your head?!" 

"If you don't feel well I'm sure Headmaster Dumbledore will understand, Harry…" 

"No, I do feel well. As well as someone can feel in this situation. You made me realize that, Hermione. When you said that I would have it easiest of us at all Houses because I'm the Boy Who Lives. I could never truly become the friends of this people within two and a half years. You know that I'm a perfectly ordinary boy with super powers. They'll see in me super powers in the body of an ordinary boy. The Slytherin hate me, they think I've everything easier because said super powers and… they seem to think so they could be all mean because the niceness is now only compensated, they're not really mean to me - after all, everyone else is nice. But they're mean to me, not to the walking super powers. And that's in the end better than being admired…" 

"And you believe the Slytherin will become your friends?" 

"No, I won't even think about befriending with them. I just can't deny anymore the facts. And the facts are that I was supposed to become Slytherin already four years ago, only avoided it by begging the Sorting Hat to sort me into Gryffindor and in the end I guess it'd pity with me. But it's sure that I belonged into Slytherin. And the experiences here hardened me, I saw people die, I fought Voldemort, had to stand up to Malfoy at a daily basis… All that made me harder and colder and if I was already back then meant for Slytherin…" 

"The fifth years are appealed for queuing up, let's go!"   


At the Slytherin table was the resorting of the fourth grade only watched wild mild interest. But then again, they also wouldn't show more emotions when they're collectively sorted into Gryffindor… Slytherins didn't liked showing weaknesses and they made a point of showing that to everyone. So it's against their nature, against their principles to show their considerable nervousness, anxiety and worry. 

Draco, Pansy, Goyle, Crabbe und Zabini were also making another half-hearted attempt at carefree conversation. 

Well, Pansy was trying to socialize with the other Slytherin, cheer them up and encourage them. But she failed miserably - some of her Housemates could be even more stubborn than she'd believed and expected them to be. "In which House do you want to be put? Of course, apart from Slytherin." 

"I don't believe I'll be resorted today. I'm not in need of it and perfectly satisfied with my life at House Slytherin so it would make no sense. I mean, I got friends, a place at the Quidditch team, my needs are met", said Blaise Zabini and gulped his butterbeer down in one draft.. 

"We all don't need resorting", snapped Draco with a strain audible in his voice. 

"But if you would be resorted, which would you take?", she insisted. 

"I don't care… as long as I'm with Greg." 

A malicious smirk appeared at Goyle's face when an especially cunning thought struck him. "Well", he said in a casual voice, "I want to join House Gryffindor." 

Everyone at the table sputtered, choked and some almost fainted. "*Goyle*! How can you?! That's not what I meant when I said I don't care as long as we're together!" 

"Think about it. If we're in Gryffindor we could annoy them all the time and nobody can do anything against it. We could even play them off against each other and destroy the dream team!" 

"I don't think that's right", meant Pansy. When everyone stared at her, she plastered a fake smile at her face. "Well, if you make such plans and think this way, you never will be sorted into Gryffindor. I mean, why should the Sorting Hat make someone a Gryffindor who's a much better Slytherin when the only reason he wants to be a Gryffindor is to harm them, huh?" 

"You've realized that quite right, Pansy, dear. Only someone who fits to them has a chance at infiltrating them." 

"We can try being little innocents, can't we?" 

"Maybe the Sorting Hat doesn't digs deep enough to discover our ulterior motives. If we atr fully eager to become Gryffindors and pretend to be such disappointed from Slytherin, it won't have the heart to make us stay with… us." 

Draco just wanted some silence. Before he's probably maybe made a Gryffindor, at least he wanted to relax a bit and sort his thoughts, have a chance to prepare for what's going to happen. Oh god, his father would disinherit him if he left this room as anything but a Slytherin through and through! If he'd recognized them all right, not a single fourth year stayed in his or her first House. Okay, it made sense because most students wanted to get the four days off… Not that it would be much better to take care of all the new Slytherin, weak Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, arrogant Ravenclaw who all never wanted to become one of them… 

"You've got nerves, Greg! If you're sorted now into Gryffindors, you'll have to stay with them for the rest of your time at Hogwarts! And because they would harass you if they would find out that you betrayed them, you've to keep your pretence up till the very end. Not that you've any chance at becoming Gryffindors, you don't fit to them at all… Besides, did you ever thought about your families reactions? If any of us becomes Gryffindor, we're toast!" 

"Maybe. But somehow I think it would be interesting to get first-hand experiences how the other Houses are. I mean, we never got in touch with them and you never wanted me to befriend with anyone from them, Draco…" 

"Pansy, you know why I didn't approved of you befriend with other Houses, although I would've never forbidden it. You would only get unhappy this way and you would make yourselves many enemies among the Slytherin. We also would have to pretend that we hate you or someone would finally realize anything and maybe inform my father. And you know what he would do with all of us… Besides, nobody wants anything to do with us, so they would only hurt you and make you unhappy. 

But if you really want to waste yourselves on Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs and their kind, then I won't stop you. If you're not sorted into another House, I'll let you take care of our new fellow Slytherin. It shouldn't be hard for you and suspicious to make some friends from other Houses among them and I can justify it so that I don't want to be bothered with caring for them, helping them to settle in." In a softer voice, more gentle than most people would credit him with, Draco said, "but I'm positive that you get your transfer, Pansy. If someone deserves it, then you!" 

"Thank you very much, Draco! It means a lot to me that you would trust me with the new Slytherin as well as you won't hold a grudge against me when I'll have to join another House. Because of the four of you it's a pity to leave Slytherin. Let's face it, the last years were the best of my life - especially with me pretending to be Draco's girlfriend and the other cool stuff we did - but now it's time to move on. I only wanted to join Slytherin to please my family and thanks to you I got the self-confidence to stand up to them. And this is my last opportunity at joining one of the other Houses, maybe my last opportunity to make friends with someone from another House at all. And I don't want to waste it, as hard as this decision is." 

Blaise hugged his friend in an encouraging way and patted her back. He's sorry for the poor girl, she's almost crying. "We understand that, Pansy. Don't worry that we'll not be anymore your friends. What we experienced together forged a friendship that nobody can ever take away from us, no matter what Houses we belong to." 

"Which do you want anyway, Blaise?" 

"Oh, I really don't know. I think the Ravenclaw are bearable, although they're kind of weird people. But… yeah, I guess Ravenclaw is the smaller evil. You yourself? I mean, you want to leave Slytherin for years, you ought to have thought a lot about this choice." 

"And as more as I thought about is as more I got confused. Hufflepuff are good, kind people who I admire for being so strong, although they're ridiculed and treated disparagingly occasionally. But they're somewhat weak, aren't they? And I got a major problem with their reputation, as much as I respect them for handling it so well. 

Ravenclaw I admire also, but I can't see myself seriously as one of the intelligent, wise Ravenclaw. I'm not as stupid as I like people - especially Gryffindors - to believe but I doubt I'm smart enough to become a Ravenclaw and feel comfortable in their House. I mean, I strive for knowledge, but so much…? 

I don't want to join Gryffindor because they're stupid blockheads, like Mudbloods and Muggles and I can't stand them. But I envy them the friendship and undying loyalty they share such casually, I like it that they're good and kind, it would be a pleasant change. When I can't have loving, caring parents, at least a loving, caring House's a little compensation." 

"Well, that's what the Sorting Hat's there for, isn't it? It's impartial and usually makes really good decisions, so…" 

"Oh, we've to queue up! Let's go!"   


"Creevey, Colin!" 

"RAVENCLAW!" 

Colin was surprised that he's chosen for such an elite House like Ravenclaw. He'd already came to terms with becoming this evening a Hufflepuff and instead he's now one of the clever ones, his passion for photography would maybe even be appreciated there… Well, that's quite a pleasant resorting!   


"Weasley, Ginny!" 

"Oh, what do we have here? A hunger for knowledge, loyalty, wit, wisdom and compassion, that's difficult…" 

Ravenclaw, please Ravenclaw! I don't want to be separated from my brothers, no matter what major jerks they're sometimes, but I so want to become a Ravenclaw! 

"RAVENCLAW!" 

Ginny jumped happily up and down, delighted that she'd gotten her wish. Now she could finally join Ravenclaw and even kept some of her friends… After she was congratulated by her brothers and fetched her luggage, she skipped to the Ravenclaw table, greeting Colin and waiting for Hermione. Surely the other girl wouldn't have any problems to join if Colin and her were picked - Hermione was so very smart and kind.   


"Crabbe, Vincent!" 

"Very easy, no doubt here, only in one House you can develop freely", said the Sorting Hat and didn't even allowed the Slytherin to say anything. "That is… GRYFFINDOR!", it exclaimed oblivious to the reaction it caused. 

Vincent Crabbe was such shocked that he couldn't even be surprised. In a daze, he glared at the Sorting Hat and went back to the Slytherin table to get his baggage. "You're right, Greg", he admitted, still dumbfounded. 

"I'll get into Gryffindor too, don't worry, Vince", said Goyle. He have his boyfriend a goodbye kiss, hoping now for serious that he became a Gryffindor. Not to infiltrate them, he just didn't wanted to be apart from Vincent, even if that meant becoming one of the people he hated most… 

He sat down away from the Gryffindors, his fellow Gryffindors, he corrected himself, and tapped his foot impatiently, waiting for his boyfriend's resorting and trying to understand what had just happened. And how he could explain this to mum…   


"Granger, Hermione!" 

"Oh, that's difficult. You love the Gryffindor boy, you are brave and kind, but you fit perfectly into… RAVENCLAW!" 

Some of the students commented on the rush at the Ravenclaw House by Gryffindors - which's quite a compliment for them - but nobody who knew Hermione was surprised that she's picked for this special honour. 

Hermione herself let out a delighted cry and beamed first at her friends, then at the applauding Ravenclaws. Hurrying back to her friends, she got a kiss from boyfriend Ron, some hugs and pats. "Ron, you looked after my luggage?" 

"Sure! Now go, we understand that you want to be with your new House now, darling. And send me after the banquet an owl how you're doing!" 

"You bet!"   


"Finnegan, Seamus!" 

"So you want to stay with your friends… But you don't fit to them, not anymore. You should be happy about the resorting. You're still brave and good-hearted, but you'll find your kind in another House. You'll be very happy with them, don't worry." The Sorting Hat cried in a - rather annoyingly - cheerful voice, "SLYTHERIN!" 

Seamus had had a bad gut feeling all the time. But this was worse than he'd feared in his worst nightmares… Ghostly pale, he went back to fetch his baggage, muttering at his way, "goodness gracious! I'll not even survive my first 24 hours!" 

"Keep your chin up, Seamus!", said Neville. He's still at their table, because frog Trevor felt like playing hide-and-seek with him before they went to the sorting. With a mock evil smirk he added, "I'm with you in a couple of minutes." 

"Don't make jokes about that stuff, it's not funny, Neville." With a last wistful look at his friends, who're still waiting for their sorting or already at the new tables, he approached the Slytherin table.   


"Goyle, Gregory!" 

"Easy", chirped the hat. "You love the Crabbe boy enough to settle into Gryffindor for his sake. GRYFFINDOR!" 

The Slytherin… Gryffindor heaved a sigh of relief. Gregory Goyle had never felt as good about a really apocalyptic thing as this evening. "Draco, my luggage? Oh, I suppose as a Gryffindor this is "would you please give me my luggage when you're bored some time, kind sir"…" 

Draco returned Gregory's smile hesitant. Now it's official that he'd maybe loose two of his best and longest friends unless he's sorted into Gryffindor as well - which's highly unlikely - and he just didn't felt like gallows humour. "Have fun. And let go of me before Vince gets jealous", the blonde said somewhat gruffly.   


"Longbottom, Neville!" 

The Sorting Hat didn't said anything to him. It made Neville expect the worst. No! No! *No*! Even I can't have that much bad luck, life just isn't fair! 

"SLYTHERIN!" 

"*Excuse me*?! Nevile isn't a Slytherin! They can't do that!", shouted Ron indignant. "Harry! We can't let them do that to him! Slytherin of all Houses! Poor Neville, they're always mocking him and now…" 

"Look at the bright side: At least it won't be the end of our circle of friends, we just become two or three smaller circle of friends." 

"How can you even think about that? Harry, you really do behave like some of this Slytherin bastards!" 

Neville wasn't surprised. In fact, he'd known this would happen. Just his luck, becoming a member of the only House his family surely would never tolerate, let alone accept. Now he's not only an outsider, a loser at his House, also at his family… 

So he reacted a bit harsher to what he'd overheard of Ron's complaining that he would've usually. Maybe, though, it just was the knowledge that it didn't mattered, he's anyway dead for his friends. "Thank you, Ron, that's just what I need for a good start at my new House - my friends making it even harder with insults and not even giving me a chance!" 

"I'm sorry." 

"Me too. See you, Harry, Ron, my "fellow Slytherin" are glaring, I must be going…"   


"Malfoy, Draco!" 

"SLYTHERIN!" 

Good. And like expected. That's very good. He really didn't felt like being explaining this to his father - and being disinherited… 

While Draco returned to the Slytherin table, he contemplated what he'd to do now. Without three of his four best friends certainly, maybe without all of them, most of the experienced and mature Slytherin transferred and as his House's only prefect - Pansy was the other Slytherin prefect - instead with clumsy Gryffindors like Longbottom, this was going to be a hell of a week…   


"Parkinson, Pansy!" 

I don't have a real preference, but just not Slytherin. As much as I love my friends, I don't want back to Slytherin. Especially not now that there're so many Gryffindors who'll make fun of us and taunt us all the time. 

"HUFFLEPUFF!" 

Well, very well. Pansy could handle Hufflepuff and although the Hufflepuff clasped hesitantly, they didn't looked like they're angry or disappointed with her choice… As an additional advantage, she'd only counted three Slytherin at Hufflepuff. There she could maybe start really anew, without anyone knowing her and expecting anything. 

Smiling triumphantly at her best friends - seated at two House tables and standing in the line - she accepted her baggage from Blaise Zabini and got her congratulation. Then she hurried to the Hufflepuff table, looking already forward to the banquet. And she really didn't wanted to know what a frog was doing at the Slytherin table …   


"Potter, Harry!" 

Because last time the hat had already wanted to put him into Slytherin, this time Harry was cautious. He thought nothing at all. He didn't wanted to give the hat anything it could use against him. 

"SLYTHERIN!" 

No emotion was shown at Harry's face when he received his "judgement" from an especially cheerful Sorting Hat. At first he even believed the Hat was smug about finally having put him into Slytherin - even if it took him four years - but then he told himself the other Slytherins craziness was already rubbing off on him and he's just paranoid. 

Harry still didn't allowed himself any visible reaction when he went back to the Gryffindor table to get his baggage. He'd refused Ron's offer to look after it for him because he expected this decision and didn't wanted to deal with his best friend's feelings as well as his own. Silently and apparently perfectly calm, he picked his luggage up and sauntered to the Slytherin table way more determined and relaxed than he felt. 

He could remember very well that he'd always glared at this table, channelling all his hate and anger at the students eating at it. Now he's one of them himself and somehow it seemed suddenly so very funny that he couldn't prevent himself from going into hysterics…   


"Thomas, Dean!" 

"HUFFLEPUFF!" 

Shrugging, Dean fetched his baggage and turned to the Hufflepuff table. Could've been worse. A few minutes before he would've been at the least annoyed by this decision. But since he knew the sorting of pitiable Seamus, Neville and Harry, he didn't gave himself the right to complain about becoming a Hufflepuff. Slytherin would've been way worse.   


"Weasley, Ron!" 

"So you want to be again a Gryffindor, huh? Well, you are still brave, kind and they can give you a lot. But Slytherin can help you to become the leader you always wanted to be. When you're one of them you can become someone great, they'll nurture your ambitions." 

"Please not Slytherin! I hate them fiercely and they hate me as much! I can't become one of them." 

"But you're capable of handling yourself. You don't have to fear them and most of your friends are there. You have a quick wit that would fit to Ravenclaw, also your girlfriend is there. But you aren't a bookworm. Then it is again… GRYFFINDOR!" 

Ron leaped back to the Gryffindor table and his brothers, overwhelmed by relief and happiness. He'd maybe lost some of his friends, but he hadn't lost his House as well… It wasn't a great consolation, but this was better than getting nothing at all. 

When he instantly started celebrating with Fred and George - who were still waiting for their resorting - Ron's eyes wandered equally often to the Ravenclaw and Slytherin tables. He's proud that his clever girlfriend finally achieved becoming a member of the - for wisdom famous - Ravenclaw House. Hermione deserved to have people in her House who didn't looked at her like she's crazy when she told them excited she'd spend the whole weekend at the library… 

The youngest Weasley boy's less proud that his best friend and two very good and trusted friends were now Slytherin. He could just hope that Harry was right and their friendship wasn't destroyed by this. Although it wasn't very encouraging that his best friend had really fled to the Slytherin table as soon as he's sorted…   


"Zabini, Blaise!" 

"SLYTHERIN!" 

"Yeah!" Blaise couldn't help a cry of triumph. He's too happy to tell himself mentally off for this. Later he would worry about his reputation, now just about celebrating. And… about saving Draco from suicide. His friend looked pitiable, with a hysterically - or manically? - giggling Harry Potter standing only a couple of feet away, Finnegan trying to bond with him and babbling him dumb and deaf in the process, and Longbottom's frog on the run… 

The - as ever - Slytherin hurried back to his seat next to Draco, hoping that he hadn't lost his sanity by now. But how could the Sorting Hat be so cruel anyway, filling their House with Gryffindors? And if it'd to be Gryffindors, why not the kind, brave heroes they're so proud of, why the idiots and clumsy ones? Was this whole resorting some really sick prank of the Weasley twins…?   


"Weasley, Fred!" 

"HUFFLEPUFF!" 

Okay, that wasn't what he'd hoped for, but it's OK. At least they wouldn't be disinherited, like if they'd to join Slytherin and the Hufflepuffs maybe didn't knew about their pranks…   


"Weasley, George!" 

"HUFFLEPUFF!" 

Good choice. He wasn't separated from his twin and the Hufflepuffs maybe would be nicer when they became victims of pranks than the Gryffindors. Hm, it would be definitely interesting to try something tonight, when nobody expected anything already…   


"Hey Seamus! I told you that you wouldn't be for a long time alone at Slytherin, didn't I?" Neville couldn't help some smugness at being right. Maybe he hadn't made a necessary prophecy and he rather had been mistaken this time, but at least he hadn't blasted the Potions classroom with his divination, that's a progress… 

"Aye, my great fortune-teller Master Neville!", teased Seamus and made a mock bow. 

"Hopefully one of our "old" Slytherin classmates stays - hey, I would've never thought I would ever say that, and mean it - or we won't even be able to find our dorm. And I need to talk to the prefect about Trevor, maybe the snakes are more than a symbol and I really don't want Trevor to be all the time almost-dinner like at the Gryffindor dorm with Harry's snake, Hermione's monster and all the other monsters of my roommates…" 

"Take a seat and let's as a precaution also keep one for Harry. I heard this is the area where most of the fifth years sit, so if our prefects aren't Slytherin anymore, here someone will maybe baby-sit us. Besides, it can't hurt to try some bonding at the bonding banquet." 

When the prefect approached the table, he just overheard that this Slytherin freshmen were desperate to talk to a prefect. Because they sat anyway next to his group's seats and Zabini would kill him if he found out he's mean to their "baby snakes", like Pansy called their newcomers, he said as polite as he could manage, "you've found the prefect. Are you already in trouble? If you cost us House points, you'll wish you're dead when we're through with you!" 

That suddenly Draco Malfoy sat down in front of him startled Neville terrible. Old habits got the better of him and his hand went without thinking from the pocket that held Trevor to his wand. Then he remembered that Malfoy's presence was very justified and the blonde snob could make his life even more miserable than before if he wanted to. So he tried to cover his reaction up and forced himself to act casual, "hello. We aren't in trouble, but we need to talk to you. Uh… some time, when you aren't busy. But if we took someone else places, we go. No problem, non at all, really!" 

That's ought to be good! "Make yourselves comfortable, Longbottom, Finnegan. It's always a pleasure to be of assistance for fellow students", the white-blonde prefect said with a malicious smirk. 

When Neville sat down distracted, the frog made use of this rare opportunity and escaped from his pocket. With a quack he leaped at the table. "Trevor! Not *again*!", he groaned, blushing furiously. 

Draco wanted to kill the clumsy Gryffindor student at first. How could he loose a frog? And what's the frog doing here? "Why the hell are you anyway bringing a bloody *frog* to the sorting, Longbottom?!", he shouted indignant and furious. A frog bouncing over the House table at a banquet - what a terrible disgrace for them! Keeper and animal would've to pay dearly for this… incident. 

But then the little frog quacked - posing in the middle of the festive set table - to get attention. And he looked just too cute that anyone could stay mad at him. Hufflepuffs were the first not involved people who noticed Trevor. Giggling how cute the frog was and that they'd never believed Slytherins could be such sweeties that they bring their animal friends to the sorting - maybe even as lucky charm - the girls were instantly in raptures. The present Slytherin, some Gryffindor and Ravenclaw believed frog Trevor to be a planned, intentional gimmick of House Slytherin. Some Gryffindor even claimed to know that the Slytherin wanted to prove finally that they did have a sense of humour… 

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Malfoy! I didn't wanted that to happen, if I'd known that Trevor would disappear and make trouble I hadn't brought him along… But I'll catch him!" 

"No!", hissed Draco and pulled the other student back, who's wanting to chase his animal. 

"What?" 

"Everyone believes the frog is a gag and even if we get into trouble because of bringing animals into the Great Hall as well as disturbing the resorting, I can handle that. But if you chase Trevor now, even your brainless Gryffindor friends will get that it's an embarrassing accident - and we make a fool of ourselves. So you'll either play along voluntary or I make you!" 

"Malfoy, really, now you're exaggerating. Even if our "brainless Gryffindor friends" - very flattering compliment, by the way, thank you very much! - use this for teasing, we'll all be teased. And Neville will be the main victim of this, maybe me and his other friends a bit, you and your precious fan club aren't affected at all - of which anyway no one's left. Let's just forget for the moment that the frog is on the run, Trevor is always running away and he always comes back. Let him have some fun and when Neville threatens him, he'll come back. We've at least once a day frog chase and every several weeks Trevor has his fun in the Great Hall, that's no big deal." 

Draco hadn't really given any attention to the sorting anymore, but he knew which Houses Pansy and Potter got. And latter was approaching their table, so he wanted to finish this talk. Harry Potter would surely love to tease him with Trevor. "Just to avoid misunderstandings: I won't help searching and…!" He interrupted himself because said boy was almost toppling over from laughter. "What's so funny, Potter?!", he snarled. 

Seamus was intent on bonding with Draco Malfoy. And he didn't liked being interrupted, especially by Harry, who's anyway Malfoy's centre of attention. Now it's his turn! "Oh, ignore him, in case you didn't noticed, he's just plain weird." 

"I did notice indeed", agreed Draco smirking. He'd recovered from the frog shock and his attitude was again firm in place. "If you don't mind, I would really like to concentrate now on the sorting again!" 

"Okay. I didn't expected you to be capable of polite small talk." 

"I don't have to take insults from a Gryffindor!" 

"Ex-Gryffindor. At the moment I'm a Slytherin. That's the only reason why I'm even trying to be civil to you instead of telling you what I really want to", Seamus said with an unusually sharp tongue. 

The blonde's grey eyes narrowed dangerously in anger. Suddenly he smiled. It's a small smile, but a honest one nonetheless. "Now I see why you're sorted into Slytherin…" 

"Are you going to share? I don't have a clue." 

"If you ask nicely enough." 

He snorted, half amused, half insulted. "Only in your dreams!" 

"Fine. Then make your friend Potter sit down and be quiet before I kick him out of Slytherin." 

"If annoying you is all we need to do to leave Slytherin…" 

"Hey Draco, someone brought food for our owls?", asked Blaise smug, when he returned finally to the Slytherin table. 

Neville stared with wide, shocked eyes at his frog. "Oh goodness! I didn't thought about that! I've to get Trevor or an owl will get him!" Before he could be held back again, he chased after his fleeing frog. 

"Use magic", suggested another Slytherin who overheard their conversation. 

"Would love to, but me and magic means exploding cauldrons and I don't want to risk anything with so many people around." 

"Oh, in that case, let me take care of your frog problem." Blaise whipped his wand out and pointed it at Trevor. A shimmering bubble surrounded the little animal after Zabini had cast a spell. "I created now a magical force-field. The bubble will get invisible in a couple of moments so that your Trevor isn't scared, he can't leave the bubble until the spell is removed and he's protected from the carnivorous animals around here." 

"Thank you." 

"Not at all, I also wouldn't be happy if my Lorene was in danger of becoming my owl's pudding." 

"What animal is your pet?" asked Seamus. By now he's tired of trying to socialize with the defiantly taciturn Draco Malfoy and ignored the blonde boy petulant. 

"Some magical snake which's name I don't know." 

"Hopefully…" 

"Lorene is a race somewhere between small snake and blindworm, don't worry about her snacking at Trevor." 

"Can I once come to your dorm and have a look at her?" 

"*Our* dorm, Neville. You, Draco, Finnegan, Potter and me are now the inhabitants of your dorm." 

"But you're Slytherin… Oops! I totally forgot that I'm now in Slytherin. Stupid, stupid, stupid, Neville! You wouldn't be allowed to sit at this table if you're still in Gryffindor, this nice people would most likely try to kill you or at least make you spend the next weeks with Madam Pomfrey for getting near their table", he muttered under his breath and hit his head at the table. Apologetic, Neville smiled at Blaise and said, "it's still so new, hell, I'm not even sure I would find the entrance by myself!" 

"Don't worry, you'll soon be at home at our dungeons. I mean, our common room is maybe not as luxurious as the Gryffindors, but we've more, smaller dorms. I personally prefer privacy and cosiness to big, impressive rooms." 

"Cosiness sounds good. Didn't credited you with it, though." 

"How did you imagined our common room?" 

"Cold, maybe naked stone, very plain and impersonate…" He heard Draco snort and got defensive, "I don't know myself. Maybe the way that would fit to you. Or at least to how you're behaving all the time, I'm not sure anymore if you're really this ruthless, cold and arrogant." 

"Well, thank you. Draco, you're the only one of us not involved in a conversation at the moment. Please do all of us a favour and look after Potter, will you? He's going to suffocate if he's much longer in hysterics. And I for my part don't have any intention to spend the night at the hospital wing with Madam Pomfrey and the stomach-ache patients." 

This did the trick. Draco muttered under his breath something about traitorous friends that are too much Slytherin for his own good. But he did as Blaise asked him to. Even if not the way he'd expected him to. "Aw bloody hell, Potter, snap out of it!" 

Harry was confused to no end. He'd suddenly felt laughter bubbling up and a moment later he's going into hysterics. Next thing he knew was that Malfoy was annoyed. Because of him. "Huh? What have I done wrong this time?" Harry pushed his bottom lip out, pouting quite adorable. 

"Get at the table! You're scaring the first years. Fool…!" 

"Hey, I heard that!" 

"Do I look like I care?!" 

"No, in fact you don't", he realized suddenly. Malfoy was doing a good job at ignoring him just as much as Seamus, Neville and Blaise ignored both of them. But the green-eyed could see a small, amused smirk tugging at the corners of one Slytherin's mouth… 

The Boy Who Lived was after only a couple of minutes - which they're pretended to watch the resorting - infected by his neighbour's bad mood. He just didn't liked being ignored. Okay, that's an understatement, he hated it when someone just treated him like non-existent. That'd happened way too often when he still lived with the Dursleys and he's quite touchy about everything that remembered him of them. And there's a twinge of something suspiciously feeling much like jealousy - he didn't even wanted to think about the meaning of this. "Oh bloody hell, I'm *hungry*!" 

Everyone in the Great Hall turned to the Slytherin table. This'd come out a bit louder than he wanted… Harry turned within moments as red as his ex-teams Quidditch robes. Hadn't he sat at the Slytherin table - damn the Sorting Hat - he would've ducked out of sight. And even so the temptation was almost too great. 

The Gryffindor gave their ex member sympathetic "chin up!" smiles and seemed to understand fully why he's suddenly whiny. Hufflepuffs being the kind people they were, gave him compassionate looks. The Ravenclaw looked slightly annoyed, almost disapproving, but they returned their attention soon to the Sorting Hat because one of theirs was next. Well, all but Hermione and Ginny. The girls smiled encouragingly at him, only at him - Seamus and Neville were such lost talking shop with Blaise about amphibians that they hadn't even noticed Harry's outburst. The Slytherins were way too amused for his liking. 

"Oh shut up, Potter! Aren't you satisfied with humiliating us, do you need to get all of us into trouble with the teachers as well?" 

"But I just stated that I'm hungry and I'm pretty sure that everyone here's hungry, I'm solely the only one who says it aloud." 

"For goodness' sake, stop behaving like a child and become a Slytherin! If you are going to be this bad-tempered all the time, you'll cost us a lot of House points." 

"I don't know, is that really a bad thing…?" 

"Harry, don't say such stuff. With one thing Malfoy's right, you'll cost us House points if you're like this to the teachers. Maybe even more than me… Hey, do you think Snape will still torture me, now that I'm a Slytherin? If he stops, that alone's already worth the resorting… Anyways, there's no sense crying over spilt milk, we're stuck in Slytherin for the next two and a half years and as sooner as we come to terms with it, as sooner we'll start to have a good time", said Neville determined. 

He didn't knew why he suddenly felt like defending the Slytherin - the Slytherin of all Houses - maybe he's unconsciously starting to change his loyalties, maybe he's happy to have found a new friend, most likely his Gryffindor kindness just got the better of him. But it didn't mattered, because it just wasn't fair if they willingly harmed their new House. Sure, they hated some Slytherin, but most they didn't even knew and it's mean to make this strangers on purpose loose the School Cup. 

"I'm sorry, Harry, but I've to agree here with Neville. We're stuck at House Slytherin and the only thing we can do to let the next years not become horrible is to at least give them a chance. I think we already established that we can get along with some Slytherin and even if we couldn't… do you really want to loose the School Cup, Harry? There're some outstanding Quidditch games, with a bit of luck and the many "naturalized" Gryffindors", he flashed a teasing smile at Blaise, " we can still make it… By the way, I wonder who becomes Seeker now?"   


Ron sat at the Gryffindor table with some of his acquaintances from classes as well as the fifth year Slytherin to keep an eye on them. He's Gryffindor prefect, so he'd to take care of them and keep the Slytherins from scaring the panicking first and second years. Even most third years looked less than happy. And of course the Ex-Slytherin had a great time scaring the children… 

Surprisingly, more than half of the Slytherin resorted were put into Gryffindor and Ron now tried to keep them as far away as possible from the panicking first and second years. In return many Gryffindor had become Slytherin, new Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were equally matched. 

The red-haired boy wasn't able to control his anger anymore when the banquet finally started. "Why has the Sorting Hat done that? I mean, I can understand that Hermione's sorted into Ravenclaw, Ginny and Colin also make more or less sense there. Hell, I can even understand that they put Fred and George into Hufflepuff. But Harry, Neville and Seamus Slytherin…!" 

"Calm down, Ron, it could've been worse", tried Lavender Brown rather unsuccessful to calm her Housemate. 

"How? What the bloody hell could have been worse than my friends becoming Slytherin of all Houses! That's terrible and they won't become happy there, they never wanted to join this bastards, so why were they put into this House of all!" 

"Uh… worse would've been definitely if Malfoy, Parkinson and Zabini had been sorted into Gryffindor as well. Let's face it, not even you could do anything against them, with the House Gryffindor consisting halfway of former Slytherin." 

Crabbe scowled at this, but he kept silent. After all he, Gregory, Draco, Pansy and Blaise had promised each other whatever House they would be sorted into tonight they would give them at least a chance. 

Finally an Ex-Hufflepuff dared to say, "but your friends do look like they have a lot of fun, don't you think so?" 

In disdain watched Ron the Slytherin table. Doing so he stopped himself short from glaring at them. Seamus and Neville talked with this Zabini guy while playing with Trevor, Harry was lecturing Malfoy apparently about an unknown student writing Gryffindors are gits! into the air. No matter if it's childish, he answered with Slytherin sucks 

His boyfriend looked ready to pounce on the redhead, so Crabbe shot him a warning glance. "Don't bother with this Gryffindor children, Greg." 

"Hey, I heard that! Watch your mouth or at least try to pretend you're able to be civil!" 

"I believe it's obvious who's more civil at the moment." 

"Yeah, look how much fun they're having at our old table… Vince, do you think the Headmaster will put us again into Slytherin if we ask him?" 

"Nope. But maybe into Hufflepuff with Pansy, if we can think of a really good excuse why we suddenly turned into nice, little, patient Hufflepuff candidates." 

"Don't complain unless you've a better idea." 

All out of sudden an alarming thought struck Lavender. "Who's going to be our new Seeker, Ron?" 

"Bloody hell, I didn't even thought about that! Damn! We won't stand a chance against Slytherin, now that they've the two best Quidditch players of the school in their team." 

"It's so unfair. We've nobody left from our old team. I mean, we need a new Seeker, replacements for Fred and George from the senior team, that'll be hard enough. But as if that's not enough we also lack - just the people I can think spontaneous of - Ginny, Colin, Dean and Seamus from the junior team aren't anymore Gryffindors either…" 

"You have to become Seeker." 

"Aye, Ron, you have to do it." 

"That's really nice and I'm flattered, but I don't stand a chance with my broom against the other Houses. Just look at the Slytherin table, they got all the good players. It's so unfair, I still can't believe our Quidditch team is destroyed now, of all time - and it's even worse that Professor McGonagall refuses to postpone our match against Hufflepuff. Three weeks - the holidays don't count, nobody will stay - aren't an appropriate time to train a new team!" 

"All teams have to cope with the resorting, Ron. Also Hufflepuff." 

"You're right, but… I miss my friends, OK? Just give me a couple of days to get used to this situation and then I'll be again a good prefect for you." 

"Let's eat something before Hermione gets worried."   


The Slytherins entertained themselves with some superficial, harmless small talk. They chatted about their pets - Neville with his frog, Blaise, Draco and Harry with snakes - and classes, their new timetable and the delicious food. But nothing really important was discussed, nobody wanted to ruin the relaxed atmosphere already. The first arguments would start soon enough, there's no point in provoking them. 

Harry tried to enjoy the peaceful mood, but he wasn't quite able to. When the black-haired boy had eaten so much that he's afraid his stomach would burst if he only ate one other bite of iced chocolate cream gateau, puff pastry biscuits or mousse eau chocolate, the denial didn't worked anymore. "Urgh! That was definitely overkill of food." 

Draco blinked and asked after some moments disbelieving, "but why didn't you stopped when you're full?" 

"Old habits die hard… Are you guys also such tired? I feel like I'm going to nod off any moment." 

"Well, I'm not surprised. You haven't slept for three nights properly, Harry." 

"I kept you awake?" 

"All the time." 

"Sorry. I was just so bloody nervous that I couldn't relax enough to sleep." 

"The same here. But now we know the answer from the Sorting Hat, so I'll call it a day, if you don't mind, mates. That is if anyone of the long-time Slytherin could please accompany me? I don't know where you nest. And I'm afraid that I'll by accident walk back to the Gryffindor dorm and humiliate myself." 

Everyone of the group agreed with the yawning Neville. Harry wondered briefly how he'd managed to get into the same House, dorm and clique as Draco Malfoy - all of that within an evening - but he's just too tired to care. As long as he got into his bed within the next minutes, he could just maybe pretend this all had been only a very, very bad nightmare… 

Depending on your point of view, it's either a very unfortunate accident or a dispensation of fate - just outside of the Great Hall the Slytherin group run first into Ron, who's ushering some new Gryffindors out of the hall, then this group collided with a bunch of Ravenclaws, among them Hermione. 

Hermione smiled when she noticed that Harry was embarrassed looking everywhere but at her and Ron's faces. She just wasn't sure whether he's embarrassed to be seen as Slytherin or specifically with Malfoy. "Ron, Harry! It's a pleasant surprise to see you such soon again. I didn't expected to hear anything from you this evening." 

"Disappointed, honey?", teased Ron. "Ow!", he mock-cried when Hermione smacked his arm playfully. Giving up the pretence very fast cause his girlfriend anyway wasn't fooled by it, he pecked her. "How do you feel about us three going outside for a talk? The teachers are all at the banquet - even Filch, McGonagall and Snape - so we don't have to worry about being caught." 

"But if we're caught we'll already be responsible for the loss of House points. As much as I would love to use this fortunate chance, we shouldn't risk anything now. Besides, Ron, aren't you ought to bring the new Gryffindors to the tower?" 

"Oh, that's the smallest problem. Lavender understands to handle the newcomers quite well - especially the male ones - I trust her to bring them home. Well, maybe she'll organize a party instead of tucking them into bed, but I wouldn't mind some celebrating. If you two would come, at least." 

Nervously played Harry with his Slytherin scarf. He still had to get used to it, but he'd to admit that it matched his black robes quite striking. "I can't, Ron. At the moment I'm getting along with Malfoy and Zabini, I don't want to risk that." 

"If you ever want to play again Quidditch, you've to sort your problems out with him, Harry", stated Hermione calmly. "He's team captain and considering the relationship you have with Professor Snape, you need his vote of confidence." 

"Thanks for reminding me, Hermione." 

"I'm sorry, but this has to be said. And it looks like I'm the only person who dares to. Well, are we going to do this stroll or not? My fellow Ravenclaws look already huffy." 

"Potter, get moving, for goodness' sake! I have more important matters to take care of than baby-sitting you!" 

"Just tell me your password, Malfoy, I'll join you guys in a couple of minutes in the Common Room, OK?" Harry saw in the other boy's eyes that he's going to forbid him his walk gleefully. And unfortunately Malfoy had the right as the only remaining Slytherin prefect. He made a mental note to suggest they got a new second prefect still this week and searched for something Malfoy wanted from him. Well, the obvious was that he jumped from the Astronomy Tower, but that was a bit high a price just to take a walk with Hermione and Ron… "I'll help you take care of the first years until a replacement for Parkinson is chosen - if you don't boss around." 

"You start tomorrow Potter! Longbottom, where is your frog?", Draco asked with a terrible foreboding as soon as he remembered Trevor. 

"Uh… Blaise, did you take Trevor? He isn't in my pockets." 

"No, I believe you'd removed the spell when we left and taken him." 

"If you didn't removed the spell, then Trevor has to be still caught in the bubble. I hope it. Go without me, I'll catch up with you." 

Immediately rushed Blaise after the Ex-Gryffindor. "I'm gonna come along!" 

Now Draco was in a predicament. He didn't wanted the countless non-Slytherin students around them overhearing what password he told Potter. But neither did he wanted to get too near to the other boy. After he called Blaise silently all names he could think of, he whispered it into his ear, "Phoebus", snatched his snake cage and stalked immediately down the hallway. 

Harry was immensely glad that Ron and Hermione had already said their goodbyes to their companions. He didn't wanted anyone to see him bright red - and at the moment he's blushing furiously.   


Some minutes later the three friends were sitting at the grass and looked over the lake. In the almost complete darkness they could barely make out each other, from the Forbidden Forest came eerie, loud sounds. All in all, the danger of discovery was small. 

They could've had a good time just being together and talking, confiding in each other. But this time it's different. Now they're here as members of different Houses who're traditionally hating each other, didn't knew if their friendship could truly survive. What would their good intentions be worth in the light of day…? 

After several minutes of uncomfortable silence Hermione couldn't bear it anymore. "Harry, what does it means to be a Slytherin?" She hated how hesitant, uncertain her voice sounded. She's supposed to be the sensible one of them, not asking silly questions. 

Ron finally voiced his thoughts also. Not quite able to conceal his dread, he asked, "what makes a Slytherin a Slytherin?" 

Harry understood this first so cryptic seeming questions. They weren't sure if they could still trust him. after all, Harry was now a Slytherin and this was a meaningful statement about his personality, wasn't it? If he'd been sorted into this House when he first came to Hogwarts, he would've the excuse that he'd changed, but he's only a Slytherin for a couple of hours. There's not even a loophole for Harry Potter, for the great Boy Who Lived. And he didn't felt great at all. He felt terrible, like he'd betrayed his friends, although it wasn't his fault. "I wish everything could be still the same as it'd been this morning. I really do, honestly." 

"You did? But you looked to have a good time with the other Slytherin." Ron's voice was carefully guarded. The only emotion audible was his contempt for Harry's new House. 

"I'm still the person I was a couple of hours ago. My personality didn't changed, I've still the same strengths and weaknesses, I'm still afraid of the same things and like the same. Is it really so bad that I now wear a scarf in another colour? Come on, that's more or less the only immediate change. And that I'd to move into the Slytherin dungeon. But believe me, this idea doesn't thrills me exactly." 

"I just don't understand why you had to have such a good time with this git Malfoy and his bloody friends! You barely left the Gryffindor table when you went into hysterics and then you enjoyed yourself, took part in this frog stunt. You even got along with Malfoy, hell, you wanted to go back to the tower with him!" 

"Ron, let me explain this. I sat down next to him because Seamus and Neville had picked us seats next to Malfoy and Zabini - don't ask me why. 

The frog stunt was an accident, Trevor wasn't supposed to escape. And you've to admit that it's just ridiculous - a frog at the Slytherin table! 

We didn't talked about anything important, just tried to pass the time somehow enjoyable. Like Hermione said just some minutes before, I have to make a truce with Malfoy or I won't ever play Quidditch again. So it's for my own benefit when I'm civil with him. Zabini is a good player and I happen to think that he's an OK bloke. Besides Neville and Seamus are the ones who talked all the time with Zabini, I was stuck with Malfoy. 

I left with them because I neither know the password nor which is our 5th year boys dorm. And they're my roommates. This is another explanation why I was with them. We share a dorm, a table, we play Quidditch, have classes together, so we'll have to spend a lot of time together. I'll rather be civil to some - admittedly arrogant - Slytherin than let them torture me 24 hours seven days each week. And let's face it, I can't avoid the Slytherin. It's just impossible." 

"Harry, Ron, I believe the problem between you two isn't that you're Gryffindor and Slytherin. Neither it is that you, Harry, get too well along with your Slytherin Housemates. You have to get along with them and as your friends we want you to be happy. It doesn't matters with whom. And if you actually manage to make friends with some Slytherin, then we'll also befriend with them. Of course on the condition that they're civil." 

"What is our problem then, Doctor 'Mione?" 

"You are you jealous. And I can't claim that I don't have any such feelings, but at least I realize what they are. Ron, you are afraid that you won't be anymore Harry's best friend if Harry befriends with the Slytherin. He'll always be available for them, they always offer an ear to listen to his worries and wishes while you're at the other end of the castle, you're opponents at Quidditch, and there's the Gryffindor-Slytherin hostility which makes your friendship even more difficult. Additionally Harry gains new friends, friends with whom he spends more time. It's natural that you're jealous." 

"And…?" 

"Now that you know what the true problem is, we can counteract it together. We have to make sure that we don't spend less time together, at the very least. Preferably we should be more often together, to compensate that we live at different towers. When we visit Hogsmeade, we shouldn't always go with our Housemates, even when we want to. The friendship we have is very important, it grew for many years and gives us strength, we need it. That won't change when we gain new friends." 

"You're right." 

"Yes, Herm, we have to make sure that we don't loose our friendship. How about we… have together high tea tomorrow? You could come down into the Slytherin common room and use the opportunity to see Seamus and Neville again." 

"Are you sure we won't be thrown out of the tower if anyone sees us?" 

"I won't keep it a secret that we stay friends. I also won't hide you from the Slytherin. In fact, if they're still awake I'll tell them directly." 

"And if Malfoy forbids it?" 

"He can't or our deal is over." Harry failed to stifle yet another yawn. Keeping his eyes open also got more and more difficult. "We should rather go back to Gryffindor tower. Uh, that is, to Gryffindor tower, Ravenclaw tower and Slytherin dungeons. I'm so tired I'm afraid I'll fall asleep out here and get sick just before the Quidditch selection." 

And back was the tense atmosphere. Ron cleaned his robes provisional while they walked back to the castle, avoiding Harry's eyes. It didn't helped any that the clouds weren't anymore covering the moon and he now saw his best friend wearing the Slytherin scarf. "Uh… yeah, that would be a pity, I suppose. Malfoy will jump at the chance to deny you to become Seeker." 

"He will."   


They wished each other a good night when their ways parted and then Harry was left with his thoughts. 

---- 

He's alone in the dark, empty hallways of Hogwarts, moving slowly - rather reluctantly - in the rough direction of the dungeons. He didn't knew the fastest way to the Slytherin entry, in fact he'd troubles remembering where it was, so this could take some time. And he didn't really cared. As long as he didn't reached the Slytherin Tower, his tower, he neither had to cope with it looking cold and uncomfortable nor with his dorm mates. 

He stopped in front of the supposed entry and said hesitantly, "Phoebus?" Maybe Draco proved his humour with giving him a wrong password and effectively locking him out… 

A moment later Harry stood in the Slytherin common room. And got the shock of his life. 

The whole room was bathed in a soft glowing light from oil lamps of varying size, form, colour and the cosily crackling fireplace. Walls and ceiling were painted in different shades of green to make the room appear bigger and taller, the marble floor was a silvery white. Silver, green and white fluffy, thick rugs were scattered on the floor by random. Light, cheerful paintings from flowers and landscapes decorated the walls. Only four paintings were "business", showing the four House founders. 

All over the common room were small tables, couches, armchairs and chairs placed. The upholstered furniture was mainly in pleasant shades of green, silver, brown, orange, blue and black, sometimes small pillows made it look more cheerful. Even some small cupboards stood at the wands. They're either oak or some wood Harry didn't recognized, maybe cherry, with silver. 

"Wow! That's absolutely not what I expected", murmured Harry under his breath. Only when he realized that some Slytherin were still hanging around and now staring at him curiously, he remembered to snap his mouth shut. Because he's really tired by now, the black-haired boy approached reluctantly a boy that looked more or less like his age. "Uh… Hello, I need to find my dorm room. I'm a fifth year. Can you help me please?" 

"There're two boy fifth year dorms, I believe. I'm only a third year." 

"Do you happen to know which room Seamus Finnegan, Neville Longbottom, Blaise Zabini and Draco Malfoy have?" 

"Missing me already, Potter?" 

Harry whirled around as soon as he heard the all-too familiar drawl. "Malfoy, for god's sake, don't sneak up to me! One time you'll give me a heart attack, I know it… Just tell me where our damn dorm and washroom are, will you? I'm bloody tired and really don't feel like fighting with you right now." 

The blonde boy understood very well. He's also not looking forward to 24/7 fights with Harry Potter, but he wasn't ready to admit that. At least in front of witnesses. And not before he's sure this wasn't just sleep deprivation and exhaustion. "Just follow me and then get into bed. I want to make full use of my claim and it's no fun if you're too tired to put up a fight." 

tbc…   


If you wonder why the Common Room is looking so friendly, I'll explain it in one of the next chapters. Who knows, maybe this will even become important? 


	3. Settling down?

Author: Artemis (artemis1000@gmx.net)   
Disclaimer: Harry Potter, plot and all her characters belong to JKR and her publishing companies, which's names I don't know. No copyright infringement intended. Don't bother suing, my "fortune" isn't worth the trouble. I only own the idea to this story.   
Timeline: In their fifth year, I placed it 1995/1996   
Rating: PG-13   
Chapter: 3/15   
Pairings: Draco/Harry, Blaise Zabini/Neville, minor Pansy/Seamus, Hermione/Ron, Goyle/Crabbe   
Summary: At their first day at Slytherin the Gryffindor boys have to unpack, try to get along with their long-time Slytherin roommates while still enjoying the additional days off. Harry's first reunion with Ron and Hermione doesn't goes as well as it should and Neville bonds too much with Blaise for the taste of their friends.   


**Silver Snake**   
**_By Artemis (Artemis1000@gmx.net)_**

Chapter three: Settling down? - Tuesday   


Harry hadn't even changed into his pyjama when he fell asleep. Very few times before he'd been this tired without doing straining physical work. But this day had been even more straining, because it's exhausting his soul, his spirit… 

The idyll was over way too fast for Harry's taste. Something ice-cold and wet was run over his face, his comfortably soft, warm quilt was crudely pulled away. He shot upwards by instinct, shouting, "what the bloody hell…?! Ron, stop it this instance, that's not funny!" 

Draco was smiling amusedly. But as a precaution he snatched the washcloth away before Harry opened his eyes - and maybe slapped him with the face flannel. "Actually, it's me, Potter, not the Weasel." 

"*Malfoy*! What are you doing in my dorm?!" 

This got Harry a snicker from Draco, howling laughter from Blaise, smirks from Seamus and Neville. 

"You know, Slytherin's really bringing me luck. Now I'm not anymore the only one who embarrasses himself", joked Neville. He's already dressed in dark-green robes and sat at his silver fourposter bed with Blaise. The moment he said his joke aloud, he realized he probably shouldn't have attracted any attention. If Harry noticed that he's almost sitting at Blaise's lap... 

He did notice, of course. It's hard not to see that his roommates were virtually cuddling. "Neville, what are you and Zabini doing there?" 

"They're studying for Potions, Potter. And they would appreciate if Mister Potter wouldn't talk about them like they're not present." 

"Potions? No kidding? Your will-power is impressive, after last night I couldn't even study a comic book. But do you believe that will be of any use? Hermione tried for years to help you at Potions and she never had any success but that you didn't blasted Hogwarts. Snape wasn't impressed at all, so I suppose he'll also find a way to torture you even if you study all the time." 

"Oh, but at least then I can say for sure that I tried everything and it's not my fault. I don't want to loose more House Points for Slytherin than inevitable. And when Blaise is anyway playing truant…" Neville threw another adoring look at his "study partner". Frankly, he's bored out of his mind after unpacking and would even go through Hermione's studying again as long as Blaise was with him. 

Harry and Draco shared a knowing grin. But they're discreet and polite enough not to mention it. Seamus didn't showed the same consideration. "Awww how cute, Neville's having a crush!" 

"I don't!" 

"Let's continue studying in the garden, Neville, why should we listen to this crap?" Blaise grabbed Neville's hand and dragged him out of the room. 

"I can't believe that Nevile Longbottom has a crush on a Sytherin!", exclaimed Seamus. "He's always teased by all Slytherins and now he's head over heels for Zabini… I really don't understand that guy!" 

"I've to tell Ron and Hermione about that! No, they anyway won't believe me, I have to prove it to them. Malfoy, can you make some excuse up why they've to stay in the tower this afternoon? Ron and Herm visit me then." 

"I'll give it a try. Just because I want to see Weasel's face when he finds out that one of his loyal Gryffindors is already having a crush on a Slytherin who belongs to one of the traditional, conservative families, that doesn't means that I approve of you inviting a Gryffindor and a Mudblood." 

"Stop calling Hermione that!" 

"And what are you going to do if I don't stop?" 

"Well, let's see, how about I spread some nasty rumours about you? If I maybe would let slip by accident something at the Great Hall…" 

"Okay, okay, I won't say anything." A nasty smirk appeared at Draco's still sleepy features, "I advise you, Mr. Potter to get out of bed now or I'll send you the advice-seeking first-years to a breakfast-in-bed audience…" 

Harry looked through the opened green-silver - he'd never get used to that! - hangings at the wall clock. And received the shock of his life. It's half past eleven - brunch was over since ten o'clock and in half an hour the second meal of the day would be served. "Ow bloody hell, I forgot about that! Wait for me in the Common Room, Malfoy, I need you to lead the way or I'll never get to lunch in time." 

"Maybe…" Draco "forgot" to mention to the panicking - and starving - Harry that dinner would be served until two. Most of the students had no classes, most of the others were truants, so the majority of the classes had been cancelled for the sake of bonding…   


When Harry finally was presentable lunch had started some time ago and his three waiting roommates were annoyed. The lock of his shower booth was stuck and he'd been forced to wait until another student came to free him with an unlocking spell. Of course the other boys made at their whole way to the Great Hall fun of Harry's mishap - he accused them of ganging up against him and enchanting the lock. 

They sat down at the Slytherin table - after both former Gryffindors had to be kept from sitting down at their old table - still arguing about the shower incident. "Stop it, I don't want to talk anymore about it", declared Harry scowling. He'd have looked more intimidating, though, if he'd been able to contain his roaring laughter. 

"No way, Potter! That's the most embarrassing materials I've had about you for the whole term, I would've to be stupid to waste it!" 

"You *are* stupid, Malfoy." 

Loud enough for the whole table to hear, Draco said, "at least I'm not stupid enough to lock myself up in the shower cabin." 

"I hate you!", hissed Harry over the table. 

"And I hate you. What's your point?" 

"Has anyone seen Ron and Hermione? Maybe they're worried because I wasn't at brunch." 

"I met Hermione at brunch and told her that you're still sleeping. By the way, she's doing fine at Ravenclaw, everyone is nice, she'll send an owl when she leaves for the dungeons, so you can let her in. But I'm worried. She said she's already been *before breakfast* for two hours in the library and with some other Ravenclaws she would go back until lunch." 

"That is very worrying indeed, Seamus…" 

Draco glared at his roommates. He hated, hated, hated not being the centre of attention! "I'm rather worried for Blaise. Longbottom has most likely turned him already into a turkey with his great magical skills…" 

"Zabini doesn't looks like someone who's not able to handle himself. Besides, we established already that Neville is head over heels for him, he'll be careful. How do you think Ron is doing? Dean? Ginny and Colin? Hey, maybe we visit later the Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw tower, with Neville. He has to miss Ginny a lot, her and Dean are his best friends with you, Seamus." 

"Let's visit this evening Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tomorrow. Maybe we'll even get their passwords." 

Just then the food appeared magically in front of the three students, together with handbills. Today's lunch was started by chicken and vegetable soup, main course were venison with gravy, carrots and deep-fried mushrooms, as pudding there's served plum pudding. 

House Slytherin! 

Wednesday all students interested in becoming a Quidditch player or joining the Slytherin team will be tested. Candidates have to be at the Quidditch pitch at eight o'clock in the morning. Friday evening our new player list will be published at the notice board in our Common Room. All players have to turn up for a first training in the new constellation Saturday at dawn sharp! If necessary, Quidditch robes and brooms will be handed out in the locker room. 

Harry's good mood disappeared. "Charming, just what I need - an impersonal leaflet without any of the important informations! And how about some warning, Malfoy? We don't have a Hogsmeade weekend, so I can't even ask my friends to bring me some robes. What's that a way to start training for a new team anyway, at dawn?" He wasn't really annoyed by any of the reasons he'd said, though, he's fearing the revenge of his arch-rival. What better way to humiliate him than to fail him at the admission test? 

"Unfortunately, we don't have the time to worry about your - no matter what pitiable - looks, Potter. Gryffindor has the next game against Hufflepuff in three weeks, we're going to play against Ravenclaw after two weeks training. Ravenclaw has had always some decent players and their team is virtually unharmed by the resorting. Only one member of the senior team's resorted, they're only 100 points behind us, we're 89 points behind Gryffindor…" 

"Okay, I get it. They're unaffected, we're badly shaken and we have to win this game or the Quidditch Cup is lost another year." 

"Yes." After a beat Draco added, "I would've told you about this, Potter, but you're asleep the minute you hit your bed." 

"I'm going to apply also, by the way." 

Neville and Blaise took their seats next to each other. "For what are you going to apply, Seamus?" 

"Quidditch." 

"Oh, that. Did you knew that Blaise will help at the testing? He's the only senior player still here, so he'll assist Malfoy and Snape." All the while Neville didn't took his eyes away from Blaise Zabini. So it was no surprise that he didn't noticed when his handbill appeared directly over his plate chicken broth. At least not in time. "Damn!"   


After the delicious three course lunch Harry joined a guided tour an experienced - and surprisingly nice - seventh-year gave. 

There wasn't much spectacular to be showed in the Slytherin territory, but at least now he knew the frequented short cuts to their class rooms, the Great Hall, Quidditch pitch and school grounds as well as some Slytherin history. And the arrangement of the dorms, probably the most valuable information at all. He really didn't wanted to repeat this trip into the girls dormitory, they're way too attentive at Spells and Transfiguration for his taste. He'd had a hard time throwing a curse off that made him believe he's a chicken and crow in the Common Room… 

After he'd finished the tour and dropped in by Madam Pomfrey to get rid of the lime green tail that was growing him suddenly, Harry went back to his dorm. This time, to the right one. He still hadn't unpacked his stuff and was unable to reach his chest at the bottom of his impressive luggage mountain. 

First of all he needed to reach his alarm clock or he would sleep through the Quidditch training tomorrow. For the same occasion he needed some Quidditch robes and for his beloved Firebolt he's already formulating an obituary… 

It also would be nice to reach his empty rolls of parchment to write Sirius - he needed to explain about the resorting before Remus did it. Then he should write said werewolf an owl and explain to him that nothing would have to change between them and that he please tells Hagrid nothing, he wanted to talk to both personally as soon as possible. Oh yes, then he'd to reconsider where he spent his Christmas holidays. It'd been so easy when he still believed he would stay with Ron, Ginny, Neville, Fred and George at Gryffindor tower. But then again, he'd to talk about this with the Quidditch team, if they stayed for training, then he didn't wanted to be the egoist who let them down to celebrate Christmas with his godfather… 

Harry felt like tearing his hairs out. All out of sudden everything was so complicated - even more complicated than his life had been before. 

Just then the door opened and Ron appeared. Cheerful he asked, "hey Harry, how're you?" 

"Ron, what are you doing here?" 

Ron shot a hateful glare down the hallway before he closed the door. "Your "charming roommate" condescended to let me inside and show me your dorm. Bastard!" 

"I already made myself experiences with Slytherin attitude, Ron", remembered Harry his best friend. "But unfortunately I'm now one myself, so I've to defend them… By the way, are you at the moment mad at Malfoy or Zabini?" 

"Of course Malfoy. He's terrible! How can you stand living with that bastard?" 

"I don't have much of a choice. And believe it or not, he's capable of being more or less civil if he tries really, really hard. Anyway, where's Hermione and why didn't you sent me the owl before you came? You wouldn't have had to ask Malfoy for help." 

"As punishment for a pillow fight our dorm got collectively detention at the hospital wing. When she mentioned that you'd to get rid of a tail, I thought that you need some cheering up and chose to make a surprise visit. Would've been here earlier, but I'd to sneak away from Madam Pomfrey and that's not exactly easy…" 

"Thank you, that's nice." Harry smoothed uneasily some wrinkles out of his green, embroidered bedspread. Like the green-silver linen and hangings it consisted of finest, handmade silk. He could only value the fortune this bedclothes had cost. "How do you feel about I show you our Common Room? I like it there and it's considerable more neat than the dorm. We… we could play Exploding Snap. Or chess." 

"Yeah, that would be nice, I suppose."   


Soon cheerful laughter filled the Slytherin Common Room. All tension was forgotten for Harry and Ron, they just enjoyed some carefree moments. Their good mood turned out to be catching and soon a spontaneous Exploding Snap and Wizard Chess championship was taking place at the Common Room - no matter what Houses they belonged to, the games were popular with all of them. 

When Hermione joined them, all Slytherins were so busy playing that they didn't even complained about a muggle-born being in their Common Room. 

Neville and Blaise entered the Common Room joking, flirting and holding hands. "Harry, Seamus, Malfoy, we… Hermione and Ron! Wow, that's a nice surprise!" 

"Hello Neville. And you're… sorry, I don't remember your name." 

"I don't remember you either", admitted Blaise with an a bit patronizing smirk. He didn't felt comfortable around so many Gryffindors, especially not Neville's old mates. Maybe he would change his mind and be rather their friend again…? 

"That's Blaise Zabini, my boyfriend and roommate. Blaise, Ron Weasley, one of my roommates at Gryffindor and Hermione Granger, Ex-Gryffindor and current Ravenclaw. She always helped me studying." 

Four pairs of eyebrows shot up to their hairlines. Three boys were too dumbfounded to speak, but Draco hadn't such problems. "Blaise, your *boyfriend*? I believe there's a lot you haven't told me, have you?!" 

"It just happened, Draco. I can't explain why or when we started to like each other, we've known each other since the first year, but… Let's give our Ex-Gryffindors some time to sort this out by themselves and we go to our room, OK?" 

"That's fine with me", beamed Neville. He's keen on telling his friends everything and it's weird as long as Blaise was with him. As much as he liked the other boy, he's still a Slytherin and Slytherin could sometimes be just such horribly annoying with their sarcasm.   


When two of his roommates were gone, Harry realized, "they fooled us! They got our quiet and *private* dorm and we've only the Common Room to talk…!" 

"What did you expect? Malfoy and Zabini are simply evil together", suggested Seamus. 

"Are you sure you're not exaggerating with your Slytherin-ness, Neville? I mean, if you're happy with Zabini I don't mind, but now you're also being all "best buddy" with Malfoy…" 

"*You* are exaggerating, Ron!" 

"But…" 

"How could you possibly understand it? I just like Blaise, a lot. I can't help it and I don't even want to try. I mean, it's not like anyone has any reason to complain. We're both pureblood Slytherin, which erases the whole House hostility stuff and Blaise's family can't bitch about their heir being with a Gryffindor." 

Seamus was beaming all over his face. "That's great, Neville, I'm sure you two will have a great relationship." And he'd won his bet! 

"If that's the good news…" 

"I don't understand how you can like such a person as Zabini. He's mean, evil, sly and ill-humoured like all Slytherin. But if he makes you happy…" 

"What do you expect? I'm always the oaf who's cauldrons explode and who's no good at any subject. Blaise doesn't treats me like I'm highly dangerous because of my clumsiness and extremely stupid at the same time. He's just behaving around me like around other people and occasionally that isn't very nice, granted, most of the time. But he's not like this to me. And I don't really know how to explain you this, but I like him." 

"But he's one of *them*, Neville. They laughed always at your mishaps and *made* your cauldrons explode." 

"Trust me, before our next Potions class I'll have a very long and serious talk as well with Blaise as Draco. But I don't think any Slytherin will meddle with my cauldron now because I'll partner up with Blaise at all subjects we've together. That means, of course now the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw could do something." 

"Don't worry, we don't do such stuff." 

"We neither." 

"Good. Harry, you didn't said anything, are you mad?" 

"Nope, don't worry. Whoever makes you happy is fine with me. I'm just a bit shaken because I lost three gallons." 

"You *betted* on my love life?" 

"Yes, I betted against Harry and Malfoy that you and Zabini become within a month a public couple. Seems like I won 13 gallons…" 

"If you keep that up, Seamus, the Malfoys will be impoverished soon", grinned Ron and rubbed his hands gleefully. 

With mock indignation and an angelic face complained Seamus, "what are you thinking of me, Ron? How could I ever do such a horrible thing to my beloved room- and Housemate?" His performance would've been more believable hadn't his eyes twinkled mischievously. 

"How about another game of chess, Harry?" 

"That's fine with me." 

tbc… 

Next is the Quidditch test. But I fear this can take some time, I've written around three pages and now I've hit writer's block. 


	4. Quidditch, Quidditch, Quidditch...

Author: Artemis (artemis1000@gmx.net)   
Disclaimer: Harry Potter, plot and all her characters belong to JKR and her publishing companies, which's names I don't know. No copyright infringement intended. Don't bother suing, my "fortune" isn't worth the trouble. I only own the idea to this story.   
Timeline: In their fifth year, 1995/1996   
Rating: R for strong language   
Chapter: 4/15   
Pairings: Blaise Zabini/Neville, hints of Hermione/Ron   
Summary: At their day two, or three, if you count the night of the resorting - I don't - Harry, Seamus and Neville apply for places in the Slytherin Quidditch team. If the chapter works out like I want, here will be the first H/D hints.   


**Silver Snake**   
**_By Artemis (Artemis1000@gmx.net)_**

Chapter four: Quidditch, Quidditch, Quidditch… - Wednesday   


It's an icy-cold December morning at Hogwarts, snowing and windy. The Quidditch field was - like the rest of the school grounds - covered almost a foot deep in snow. It looked like a midwinter dream, but for the Quidditch players it's all but pleasant. Unfortunately, Christmas holidays were only a week away and they needed the training. 

"Gryffindors, get the fuck away from our pitch!", shouted Draco. When he got no immediate reaction, he aimed a death glare at the collective Gryffindor team, that's just preparing to take off. Seemed like they weren't the only one testing today. But he didn't felt like being compassionate and understanding today, not when he'd had only had four hours sleep. Of course it wasn't his own fault that his dorm mates and him told each other horror stories until two in the morning, although they knew they'd to stand up at six in order to use their booking fully, which's from half past seven a.m. till ten p.m… 

Ron hovered just above the blonde, returning the glare unimpressed. "You leave, Malfoy, we're here first. And by the way, Malfoy, it's not your pitch!" 

This pieces of conversation - or rather exchange of colourful insults with other words in between - was the first thing Harry heard when he joined his team. In the locker room he'd taken his time getting used to the green Quidditch robes, so he's the last to arrive. Fortunately a Slytherin player transferred into Gryffindor had the same size and they switched robes. "Hey, what's going on?" 

"Harry, good that you're here. This Slytherin gits want to use the pitch!" 

"We "Slytherin gits" booked, if I'm not mistaken", commented Blaise dryly. 

Being the good, kind and peace-loving person he was, Harry tried to mediate. "Let's make a bargain before we waste even more time arguing. Slytherin uses the pitch today, Gryffindor gets tomorrow and Friday." 

"Friday is useless, we need some time to evaluate the results." 

"Then you get Thursday, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw can fight over making their try-out Friday." 

"But we booked the pitch, you didn't, we don't need to haggle at all", sulked Blaise. 

"Ron, you really didn't booked, did you?" 

"Of course we booked!" 

"That's odd. I can't remember that the pitch was booked twice before." 

A shy third year suggested, "maybe Madame Hooch played us a trick with that? Our teams made her a lot of trouble in the last years with our bickering and now she could pay both of us back without making one team lose." 

"I'll give this old hag a piece of my mind!" 

Just then Madame Hooch appeared behind them. "That won't be necessary, Mister Malfoy, I already can imagine what you're wanting to say. Yes, the pitch was reserved for two teams for the same time, on purpose, and if you want to go to Headmaster Dumbledore about this, you're free to do so - it's his idea. Gryffindor and Slytherin team came at the same time to us and we don't favour any teams. So we'd to find a compromise." 

"And that is…?" 

"…that you'll share the pitch like the sporting ladies and gentlemen you are. Give it a try, children, maybe you'll even enjoy it. For example, you could make a sparring game. But I'll leave that decision to you, Professor Flitwick invited me to breakfast. Have fun!" 

"Blaise, Longbottom, stop that this very instant! We're here to play Quidditch, not to make out on the Quidditch pitch." 

"Oh, Draco, cheer up! Just because you don't have any boyfriend to smooch with doesn't means the people in a relationship could restrain themselves." Blaise gave Neville another peck and wiped a snow flake from his nose. "And besides, I think this will become a great day. We have 13 hours to annoy the hell out of several dozen Gryffindors and they can't do anything against it…" 

"If I were still in Slytherin, I would be at your side", remarked Pansy and joined the group. Only after she'd hugged all her four friends and greeted Neville a bit awkwardly, she realized that the whole Gryffindor Quidditch team was gathered additional to the Slytherin players. Well, at least what she believed it to be the team cause they all wore something scarlet. "And what is this, are you trying to bond with your opponents?" 

"Hooch wants us to and booked the pitch for both of us. But Professor Snape will arrive any moment now, trust him to clear this up." 

Seamus asked with chattering teeth, "Malfoy, can we just fly a bit around? It's bloody cold and I don't particularly fancy myself deep-frozen." 

"Tell me if it helps", said Draco and nodded. He looked wistfully to the castle, wanting nothing more than to be in the Great Hall and have breakfast with the rest of the school. But he's team captain, he couldn't just leave. Well, maybe they would make a very long brunch break, preferably till lunch time… 

Harry's mildly surprised at seeing Draco Malfoy so normal. But then again, in the last days he'd gotten used to finding all the time new things out about his Slytherin roommates. Slytherins were actually possessing a fine sense of humour, but it's such subtle and wry that you easily mistook it for the ever-present sarcasm. He'd also learned that they weren't quite as cold-hearted as they wanted you to believe - as soon as they're in the Common Room most let their icy mask down. of course there're also people like Malfoy, who he still couldn't figure out, but it's a start, wasn't it? 

"Weasley, until Professor Snape arrives you can take the left side of the pitch. But don't get too comfortable, you only have a couple of minutes." 

"Oh buzz off, Malfoy. Gryffindors, we use the right half of the pitch, Slytherin takes the left. The experienced candidates please queue up here and the candidates who want to play for their first time queue up there. Please all mount your brooms now. Be careful, they're faster than you think. Now we start with some easy exercises…"   


It's a quarter to nine when Professor Snape and Professor McGonaggal arrived at the pitch. The teacher staff had had at short notice some important conference with Headmaster Dumbledore and they hadn't managed to send an owl before. 

To the delight of the Heads of Gryffindor and Slytherin both teams were - more or less - peacefully testing new players instead of ripping each other's guts out - what they'd expected to see. Only if someone crossed by accident or on purpose the green-red line they'd magically drawn minor arguments broke out. The younger students were bewildered by the quarrels, but they're smart enough to say nothing. 

Because everything had gone smoothly until now, the teachers decided they'd to share the pitch for the rest of the day as well. If any team needed the whole pitch, then they could do this exercises while the other was eating or made a break. And two hours before sunset they would start with four half an hour short games, so that every candidate could prove their skills on the desired position. 

While Harry was trying to avoid Bludgers and catch the Snitch at the same time, Ron watched his team carefully. He's happy when Hermione and Ginny were drawn after breakfast with their Ravenclaw acquaintances to the Quidditch pitch. After explaining them the booking trouble and some chitchat, the girls went to the stands. Hermione had brought a big stack of books along and she planned on reading them all before lunch - although they'd this week no classes, she's working on her extra Arithmetic essay. 

"You really don't have to work this much, Hermione. Yeah, we're in Ravenclaw now, but even Ravenclaws need occasionally fun." 

"Oh, frankly, I'm only here for Ron and Harry. It seems like I'm rather immune against the fascination of Quidditch. Will you please hand me "Fascinating Stories of Japanese Arithmetic Band five"?" 

"Here you are. How can you read so much, Hermione?" 

"I don't know, I just love books and reading. Aren't you going to do any homework while we're here?" 

"Nope, I'll just watch and when their tests aren't such hard, I'll maybe apply for membership in the Ravenclaw team." 

"If you don't, you can still become cheerleader", joked Hermione. 

"Huh? What's a cheerleader?" 

"Just a Muggle thing." 

"Oh." 

Just then Pansy returned from bringing Draco, Blaise and the Slytherin candidates a picnic basket the House Elves prepared for them. They'd made sandwiches, pastries, chocolate frogs, sweet fruit tea, hot chocolate, pumpkin juice and other refreshments for them. "Hi, is this seat taken?" 

"No, please sit down." 

"Just tell me what you want and buzz off, OK? I'm working", snapped Hermione. 

"*Herm*! Please excuse my friend. I don't think we're introduced before. Ginny Weasley from Ravenclaw." 

"I'm Pansy Parkinson, Hufflepuff." With a dazzling smile she wouldn't have dared to show in public only a week ago, Pansy shook the offered hand. 

"Oh, now I remember you. You're the girlfriend of Draco Malfoy, aren't you?" 

"*Girlfriend*? Believe it or not, but I belong to the few girls who don't have any problems resisting Draco's charm. Besides, it would be really, really sick and perverted, we have feelings like between brother and sister." 

"Oh. Do you like it in Hufflepuff? I wanted into Ravenclaw and I'm happy I did." 

"Oh, it's nice. The people there are good company, kind, understanding, always nice… it's quite a change from Slytherin. Not that I haven't had - have - good friends at Slytherin, there're still two of the six most important people in my life, but the atmosphere is the total opposite. It's pleasant that you don't have to watch your back all the time." 

"I can imagine." 

Pansy took a small pack chocolate frogs out of her handbag. "Do you two want some? I smuggled them out of the picnic basket for the players. It's not fair if they get all the good stuff, they anyway never share." 

Hermione eyed the Hufflepuff girl with distrust plainly visible in her eyes. She didn't knew what to think about Pansy's sudden change. This was a bit too fast to be believable, but the Sorting Hat wouldn't put her into Hufflepuff without a reason. "Not that I suddenly forgot everything your gang said and did, but we can't endanger the health of the Slytherin team wantonly with letting them eat all this chocolate by themselves, can we…?"   


"Do this charming ladies mind if an exhausted Quidditch player joins them for a few minutes?", panted Harry. Despite the icy temperatures sweat was running down his face. 

"Sure, take a seat. You want a chocolate frog?" 

Harry stuffed the chocolate into his mouth, gulped next some icy water down. "Sorry, I needed to catch my breath first. I'm sure that Draco Malfoy is a demon straight from hell and even more evil than Voldemort. It's just not fair that he chases us all over the pitch from his comfortable place, with drinks and biscuits…" 

Pansy nodded wisely, muttering under her breath, "that's him all over!" 

"I really don't know why Snape doesn't stops him. Oh wait, I forgot that Snape is a sadist…!" 

"*Hush*! Harry, are you crazy? Do you really want detention right now, when your participation in the Quidditch team is at stake?" 

"You're right, Herm, but they make me mad. Snape even forbid us to eat sweets in the breaks! Mean! Are you at least having a good time?" 

"Yeah, we have a great time watching you taking great pains." 

Harry glared for a moment playfully at Ginny, but then a smile forced it's way onto his face. "By the way, Miss Parkinson, you did a great job redecorating the Common Room." 

"Thanks. It's kind of my goodbye present for Slytherin. I never liked our gloomy Common Room and I wanted it to look at least for the snake babes a bit friendlier. I believe our last interior designer was suffering from serious depression and wanted to make everyone who lived there also depressive." 

"Potter, get going!", bellowed Snape all over the pitch. 

"That's slavery!", muttered Harry, but he complied reluctantly.   


"Slytherin candidates, you've now one hour break for lunch, relaxation and a change of robes. Don't stay out here, you'll only catch a cold. In exactly one hour we'll meet again, if you're late you're automatically excluded." Professor Snape glared another time at the students, then he turned around and stalked back to the castle. 

"Neville, why don't you enrol yourself?" 

"I thought I told you, Blaise." 

"Yes, but you could at least give it a try." 

"Quidditch is fun and all, but I'm just too clumsy. And falling from the broom will hurt more than making a cauldron explode and getting detention." 

"Please?" 

"Why is this so important for you, huh?" 

"Oh, I'm not sure. I just want you to share my fondness for my favourite hobby. Besides, it would be nice if we're both at the team. We could spend more time together." 

"Okay, I'll do it. But don't complain or be mad if I fail." 

"I won't." 

"Where did you left this stupid enrolment list?" 

"It's not stupid. It's tasteful." 

"Yeah, sure…!" 

"I'm going to work with Draco on the intermediate result. See you at lunch?"   


Compared to the upsetting morning, the rest of the day was eventless. Slytherin and Gryffindor players busied themselves with glaring at each other whenever they'd a few moments time for it and Draco had to tell his people all the time off because they rather teased the Gryffindors than to watch where they flew. So it happened occasionally that an inexperienced Quidditch player ended up in the stands, at a goal post or somewhere else uncomfortable and painful. 

Neville fell twice off his broom before he got the hang of it. After that he turned out to have considerable talent as beater. Under normal circumstances he would've to spend some time on the junior team, but this weren't normal circumstances, so he could likely join the senior team on condition that he stayed for Christmas and trained. Blaise was very proud. 

Seamus was going to play chaser - there's no doubt that he would be on the senior team. He wanted to become keeper, but this was Blaise's position and Draco didn't wanted to make more changes than necessary. At least not in the middle of the season, if he became better till next school year he would reconsider it. 

Harry's position was the cause of much tension. While Draco always claimed that Slytherin was more important to him than his personal success, nobody believed him fully. Not even his best friends. There's a difference between handing his position over to some better Seeker and handing it over to Harry Potter, his arch-rival for five and a half years. Besides, it's questionable if the Slytherin team would accept Harry as Seeker. No matter how good a player he was, he's still the hated goody-goody doer and perfect Gryffindor. 

How the two empty beater and one empty chaser positions would be filled the three examiners didn't knew. It's no help at all that Professor Snape was too busy to get involved in the actual decision. He would only look through the finished player list and give it his blessings.   


So Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini brooded almost till midnight over their new team constellation. 

"How do you feel about Potter as Seeker?" 

"He's good." 

"Yes, but I mean as our Seeker. You know, I always believed you should be Beater, so I'm maybe not neutral, but…" 

"I know." 

"Well?" 

"He's the better Seeker and the team would get used to him." 

"Yes. But how do you feel about it?" 

"You're right when you say that I don't have the patience to watch the game pass by. And I never managed to beat him…" 

"If we lead with 250 points it doesn't matters who catches the Snitch, so we need to have good Chasers, Beaters and Keeper. Potter won't always catch it and we need a good team, not mainly a good star." 

"I can give Beater a try." 

"Let's do it now, Draco? Tomorrow we won't have the pitch anymore and no one would see us right now." When Blaise saw that his best friend would disagree, he challenged, "what? Did you never did anything forbidden? Come on, Draco, don't tell me you don't have the guts!" 

"Let's get our brooms and we can open the lock to the broom shed." 

"Great!" 

"Won't your boyfriend be jealous?" 

"Draco, I thought we talked about this and agreed on not arguing about it anymore. Just trust me another time, give me a chance to prove you that I'm right. Unfortunately I don't have any proof now and you know that love doesn't works like this… I realize you don't approve of my choice, but I know that Neville is a good person and that I like him a lot. I can't say I love him, it's too early for that, we barely know each other, but there's just perfect chemistry. I know that this relationship is a good thing for both of us. I'm already now more happy than before, although three of my best friends aren't in my house anymore and that's straining. Trust me, OK?" 

"I do trust you, Blaise. I just want you to be happy and I'm afraid that this Gryffindor will hurt you a lot more than he'll be good for you." 

"So it's that - that he's a Gryffindor? We both know he's not anymore, the Sorting Hat will have some very good reasons for sorting Neville into House Slytherin. He's one of us now and I know that he'll prove it." A smug smirk appeared at the Slytherin's face, "and anyways, what is that between you and Harry Potter, huh? Giving me a sermon and yourself…" 

"I don't like Potter! How many times and in how many languages do I have to tell you that until you believe me?" 

"I just won't. Because I know that you have feelings for him, no matter how much you deny it. And I can understand it, if he wouldn't be taken by you already, I could be interested as well… I mean, Harry's a pretty face, well-formed body, he's not such dumb for a former Gryffindor and it should be still possible to corrupt him", he stated nonchalant. 

"Do me a favour and don't ever talk to him like this, will you?" 

Blaise knew it wasn't clever to tease a Malfoy. But he couldn't help himself. "What? Is someone openly showing his jealousy now?" 

"No. I just don't want him to run to Dumbledore and cry about you being a sick pervert that has to be expelled", answered Draco without even blinking. 

"Oh. Well, let's get our brooms." 

Tbc… 


	5. Pranks

Author: Artemis (artemis1000@gmx.net)   
Disclaimer: Harry Potter, plot and all her characters belong to JKR and her publishing companies, which's names I don't know. No copyright infringement intended. Don't bother suing, my "fortune" isn't worth the trouble. I only own the idea to this story.   
Timeline: In their fifth year, 1995/1996   
Rating: R for strong language   
Chapter: 5/15   
Pairings: A bit Blaise Zabini/Neville, Hermione/Ron   
Summary: Harry, Ron and Hermione play Slytherin *and* Gryffindor a prank, the new Quidditch team is announced.   


**Silver Snake**   
**_By Artemis (Artemis1000@gmx.net)_**

Chapter five: Pranks - Tuesday and Friday   


Harry stalked angrily to the Slytherin table, not even noticing that for the first time he immediately went to the right table. "What did you do that for, Malfoy?!", he demanded. 

"I don't have any idea what you're talking about, Potter." 

"You put a dead rat into my bed and I want a very good explanation for that!" 

"Or what…? You will go to Professor Snape and cry that I'm such mean?" 

Harry frowned angrily at his blonde housemate. "Point taken. But I don't see why I shouldn't just put something equally nasty into your bed while you sleep." 

"You can try." 

"Where were you anyway last night?" 

"Getting the dead rat, what else should I've done?" 

"And since when are rats flying? I heard when you fetched your broom." 

"Yes, Blaise and me flew last night. Didn't you ever flew at night?" 

"I never put dead rats into the beds of my roommates when I came back." 

"I didn't either." 

"Yes, you did. Who else should've done it?" 

"The dorm door usually isn't locked, Gryffindors sneaked before into our dungeons, so everyone else will be also able to. Maybe it was just an accident." It's obvious that Draco didn't cared the least bit. He's way more interested in his waffles with hot cherries, vanilla and chocolate sauce. 

"I don't believe you." 

"I don't give a fuck, Potter." 

"Then let's make a deal. You tell me honestly who put the rat into my bed and I'll answer you one question." 

"I'm not interested." 

"Oookay." Harry now also turned to his waffles. If Draco Malfoy voluntarily refused a perfect opportunity to humiliate him, he really didn't knew. Or he was the culprit. "I'll anyway find out. And if you did it, then I'll take revenge. Keep in mind that I don't have to be nice and good any longer, I'm as much of a Slytherin as you." 

"No, you aren't. Slytherins are evil, but we're not stupid. You are a stupid goody-goody doer." 

Angrily Harry stood up and took his breakfast. "Fine! If you want to pick a fight, Malfoy, do it with someone else. I'm not interested."   


Ron entered the Great Hall to find his girlfriend not here yet - or already gone - and a morose Harry sitting alone at one end of the Slytherin table. Since Malfoy was also having breakfast, but at the other end of the table, he thought of this as very odd. 

"Hey Harry! How's the weather in the dungeons?" 

"Thunderstorm, Ron." 

"Fighting with Malfoy, eh?" 

"Not exactly fights… rather not-fights. I don't talk anymore with him." 

"So bad?", asked Ron compassionate. It's rather a rhetorical question since he couldn't imagine Malfoy being anything but unbearable. 

"I thought he put a dead rat into my bed last night and I overreacted when he denied it. But the worst thing is that I'm sure I won't be on the Quidditch team this year. After that argument I can't imagine that he would still take me." 

"You're the best, he would be stupid to loose you, Harry." 

"Thanks, but nobody in Slytherin agrees with you obviously. I don't understand how I could let him get to me like that. Maybe it's just the tiredness from Quidditch yesterday or because I had to control myself all the time, I don't know. I had done such a good job at shrugging the Slytherins insults off so that he won't have any excuse…!" 

"Everyone makes mistakes." 

"He's not at the infirmary now, so it can't have been that bad. How about you come after breakfast to the Gryffindor Common Room?" 

"I appreciate the offer, but I have to keep my end of the bargain with Malfoy or he'll additionally to putting dead rats into my bed also boss me around. This morning I promised some first years a big tour through Hogwarts." 

"That's OK. Uh… how are you getting along with the other Slytherin?" 

"Zabini is nice, I haven't really had much contact with the others. There are some pretty good chess and Exploding Snap players, but otherwise…" 

"…it's just not the same as before the resorting." 

"Yeah." 

Attempting to cheer his best friend up, Ron suggested, "how about we play the Slytherins a prank? Like in the good old times." 

"I can hardly play myself a prank, can I?" 

"Oh. But we could still do something harmless… like painting the walls of the Slytherin Common Room red and golden." 

At this Harry winced, "sorry, Ron, but that is one thing I won't do. I'm grateful to Pansy that our Common Room doesn't looks anymore like a mausoleum and I won't give Malfoy an excuse to turn it back into one. Besides, if our Common Room were be green, white, silver, brown, orange, blue, black, scarlet and gold everyone would go colour-blind." 

"I for my part want to see that", smirked Ron maliciously. 

"And *I* for my part live there…!", reminded Harry sternly. 

"Oh. Right. I forgot about that. Any ideas?" 

"How about we make a prank both ways? We redecorate my Common Room with lion statues, red-golden ticker tape, festoons and Gryffindor streamers, then we do the same to your Common Room with Slytherin stuff. The best thing is that the teachers will think Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw are playing us off against each other, we're safe." 

"Cool! We can conjure the stuff when we need it. You pick me - and Hermione if she wants to join in - at ten with your invisibility cloak before the portrait hole up?" 

"There's someone till midnight at the Common Room, sometimes longer … let's start with the Gryffindor Common Room."   


The prank had already one of the desired effects before it's even put into action. 

Harry was too busy working out how they could fastest attach the decorations, making a note to self with all the magical party deco he wanted to conjure up, pondered if he should put a sleeping spell on his roommates and painting drafts for the Slytherin decorations to be miserable. Let alone had he the time to wonder if he would be on the team. 

But his sudden good mood unsettled the other Slytherins - including the other former Gryffindors - greatly. Either he'd finally cracked or he was planning something very, very devious… 

"Hello." Neville sat, still in his Quidditch robes, at Blaise's bed down. 

He received only an almost imperceptible nod in return. Blaise was absorbed in the sports part of the Daily Prophet. "You want politics or culture?" 

"No, thanks. Do you know what's going on with Harry? He's been strange the whole day." 

"He doesn't talks anymore with Draco. And he's always been weird. Didn't you noticed?" 

"That's very mean of you, Blaise. He's not weird. He's just… Harry. And frankly I don't think his daily fight with Malfoy would get him such badly off the rails. What are you reading?" 

"About some puppy Quidditch star. Maybe it's the Weasel, I saw them talk at breakfast and yesterday he wasn't strange, was he?" 

"His name is Ron *Weasley*. But that could be the cause. I saw him reading a book about sleeping spells in the Common Room - without Hermione threatening to curse him if he doesn't studies! - maybe they're working on a prank. Do you think he would do that, playing a prank on Slytherins? Now that he's one himself?" 

"Potter can try. Professor Snape will get him expelled or at the very least cautioned for that, he's now his Head of House, after all", the Slytherin said careless. 

"I'm so excited! I hope that I will be at least on the junior team. Have you already decided about the players?" 

"We worked the whole night on the senior team and this morning Draco brought the list to Professor Snape. With a bit of luck we'll hand the junior team list this evening in. But Draco and me agreed on telling no one anything." 

"Of course. Do you feel like putting that newspaper aside and taking a walk?" 

"At any time!"   


The whole day Harry had been busy and after dinner it's time for the second part of the preparations. 

As soon as he returned from supper he went to bed, excusing it with being still tired from the Quidditch try-outs. In truth he wanted to get some sleep before he sneaked upstairs. 

A quarter to ten Harry left, thankfully running into no one he knew. When he's through the entry he slipped the invisibility cloak on and took the Marauder's map out. Now his trip to the Gryffindor tower shouldn't turn out too difficult. He'd plenty experience in avoiding Filch and Mrs. Norris, a bigger problem would've been if the Slytherins became suspicious. 

Harry wasn't surprised when he found both Ron and Hermione waiting in front of the portrait hole. "Hey! Were you waiting for a long time? I had troubles finding the right corridor, that's the first time I'm back to Gryffindor tower." 

"No problem, 'Mione and me kept ourselves busy. We transformed already a tapestry into a gigantic Slytherin flag." 

"Cool!" 

"Let's get started, we're wasting precious study time." 

Ron turned to the portrait of the fat lady, "the password is "sparrow kittens". Come in, everyone's asleep already." 

"Harry, please lay the Marauder's map where we can always keep an eye on it. We can't let ourselves be surprised by Professor McGonagall hanging *Slytherin* banners up. Ron, you start with the ticker tape, Harry makes the festoons and I the banners."   


Two hours and an almost-discovery by Lavender later, the transformation of the Gryffindor Common Room was complete. 

"It looks like the headquarters of the Slytherin fan club", remarked Ron doubtful. He's not so sure anymore that the prank was a good idea. But having again an adventure with Harry and Hermione was worth it. 

"Hermione, you should get Colin to make pictures of the Common Rooms before the decoration is taken off, that's yearbook-worthy." 

"I will." And if only to annoy Ron with showing the picture around when he refused to study next time. 

"I can't wait to see a picture of the Slytherin Common Room in red and gold in our next annals", said Ron gleefully. If their second redecoration of the night would only be half as good as this it would be the ultimate humiliation! In fact, it was a prank worth of Fred and George. Pity, really, that they couldn't enjoy the fame. 

"Harry, if someone is still in your Common Room, what are you going to tell them?" 

"The truth." 

"But…" 

"It's so unlikely that they won't believe me. And even if they did, they won't say anything to the teachers. First of all they seem to be pretty loyal to their own housemates and they would only get themselves into trouble for not stopping us." 

"I can't say I agree about the Slytherins being loyal part, but you're right, they would be punished as well", agreed Hermione. "We should go now, while Filch is still at the Astronomy Tower."   


Their hard work had been worth it - they caused even more of a stir than they'd expected. 

When the first Slytherins went through the Common Room around eight o'clock at their way to the Great Hall, they believed they were hallucinating and instead went to Madam Pomfrey. It's just impossible that Gryffindors had redecorated the whole room without anyone noticing it, it'd to have taken them hours. 

The Gryffindors slept longer, but when they saw what'd happened to their Common Room they didn't doubted their eyes. Instead, 20 minutes later the whole House Gryffindor was awake. The whole House but Ron, who'd been just impossible to wake up. 

So the confrontation in the Great Hall around ten, when both - rudely by their shocked housemates awakened - Houses went to breakfast was inevitable. 

"I can't believe the bloody Slytherin cowards did that to our Common Room!", heard Harry Lavender complaining who was before him pushing her way into the Great Hall. Odd cause he thought he himself was late, but maybe it took her longer to decide if she wanted to look like a blueberry or a cherry today, he thought wryly. 

"What are you smirking at, Slytherin?", she demanded then. 

It took Harry a long time to realize that he was meant, but when he did his dumbfounded face was priceless. "Huh?" 

"Well, you are a Slytherin, aren't you?" 

"Yes, I am, Lavender. It's funny that both of our Houses became victims of a prank at the same time, isn't it?" Not even a lie. 

"Excuse me?" 

"I overheard that something happened to your Common Room. Ours was "redecorated" last night in the Gryffindor colours." 

"But you… But… Who was it then?" 

Harry shrugged, not wanting to lie into Lavender's face, "just remember next time to give your suspect the chance to defend themselves before you form a judgement. Most Slytherin believe that the Gryffindors sneaked last night into our Common Room and did all this." Having that said, the Boy Who Lived walked past her to the Slytherin table. 

Seamus was animatedly defending his ex House, "…never Gryffindor! You can trust me with that, they couldn't have gotten into our Common Room anyway. Maybe that a few Gryffindors did that, but the rest of the House won't have known about it, Professor McGonagall would never support such a thing. Take a seat, Harry, who do *you* think is responsible?" 

"No idea, Seamus." 

"But you do believe it's possible a Gryffindor was involved, don't you?" 

"There's no way to know such a thing for sure unless you're involved. I mean, Zabini, the Gryffindors seem to be in the same mess and why should they decorate their own Common Room with Slytherin stuff when they just want to annoy us?" 

"To make themselves inconspicuous?", suggested Draco. 

"That's not Gryffindor-ish." 

"No, it's not. But maybe they actually got some people with brains through the resorting." 

"Oh just shut up, Malfoy!" 

Seamus, Neville and Blaise shared a knowing, relieved grin. It's good that their friends talked again. Even them only exchanging insults - like in the old times - was better than the uncomfortable silence from yesterday. 

"I for my part think House Hufflepuff did it", quipped suddenly someone behind them up. "Don't you know that we are the most evil girls?" 

Pansy gave - the utterly flustered - Draco and Blaise a hug as greeting, Harry a polite greeting, told them she's doing fine at Hufflepuff and happy. Then she noticed that the two other boys looked rather uncomfortable. "Oh, don't worry, Finnegan, Longbottom, I won't hex you or anything. I'm not even allowed to as a good little Hufflepuff." 

"R…really?" 

"Really, Longbottom." 

"Not that I would be complaining, Pansy, but what are you doing here?" 

"Oh, I wanted to see how you guys are doing. Especially now after someone played a prank on you. I hope you don't get yourself into trouble because of it with the Gryffindors, some of them aren't such bad, you know? Blaise, I trust you to restrain Draco…" 

"I don't need a baby-sitter!" 

"Yes, you do. I'll not leave him out of my eyes, Pansy, promised." Wryly he added, "and if he gets nasty to the Gryffindors I'll put the banners and festoons *on him*." 

"Blaise, if you try that you're dead." 

"I did worse to you and still you never killed me. Pansy, you never told us if you stay for Christmas." 

"I'll go home. Mum, dad and me will visit our grandparents this year. Grandma is out of the hospital." 

"That's great. All of us will stay and train for the game against Ravenclaw." 

"Oh yes, nasty thing. Do you think you'll get the new broom this year, Blaise?" 

At this point Harry stopped listening to the conversation, wanting to leave them some privacy. With half of the people at their table chatting excited about the new Quiddtch team and the other half still being scandalised about their prank, Harry's own nervousness returned. He really hoped he was on the team, even if it meant playing against Gryffindor. No matter which position, which team, if they lost or won - he just hoped he's able to fly.   


Time was crawling. Every hour seemed longer than the last to Harry Potter. 

After he returned from lunch he even sat down in front of the bulletin board with a chess board and played against himself. 

When Ron and Hermione visited - they knew the password from last night - he still refused to go away from the black board. But while Hermione was ready to call Madam Pomfrey, Ron understood how important a place on the Quidditch team was for him. The Gryffindor even offered to stay and play chess with him, not once complaining that this was the Slytherin Common Room. 

"Ron, I can't bear this any longer. I'm going to ask Malfoy." 

"If you're on the team or when the list is published?" 

"Both." 

Seamus joined them, shaking his head. "You can save your breath, Harry, I asked and he said we would just have to wait and find out for ourselves." 

"What a brat!" 

"You only noticed that now?", snorted Ron. He wouldn't be surprised if Malfoy didn't published the list at all before tomorrow and only told his own fan club the results, so that the rest would be off the team again because they didn't came to the training. 

"Don't, Ron, someone could hear…" Just then he caught sight of Draco entering the Common Room with a sheet of paper. "I think he has the results!" 

"Yes, he has. Move, Potter, I can't reach the black board." While he fastened the sheet to the board, standing so that nobody could read the results, he muttered, "is Gryffindors Common Room so rotten that you have to stay here, Weasley? Maybe you can't afford new furniture…?" 

"It's much better than your seedy shack!", shot Ron back. 

Harry knew that the argument wouldn't stop anytime soon and was anyway too curious about the Quidditch team to care. So he pushed Draco away from the black board and scanned the names for his own. When he finally found it he gasped in surprise… 

_Slytherin senior team_   
_Team captain: Draco Malfoy_

_Attwood, Sarah: Chaser_   
_Finnegan, Seamus: Chaser_   
_Longbottom, Neville: Beater_   
_Malfoy, Draco: Beater_   
_Mitchell, Jane: Chaser_   
_Potter, Harry: Seeker_   
_Zabini, Blaise: Keeper_

"Seeker? I'm really Seeker? Malfoy, are you kidding?" 

"No, I'm serious about the team list. I wanted to try Beater for a long time, but I'd no replacement as Seeker until you joined." 

"And you really don't mind?" 

"No, I don't. Anything else, Potter? I still have to write my DADA paper and I don't fancy getting detention just because of you." 

"Thank you." 

tbc… 

Jane Mitchell and Sarah Attwood were just added because I needed another two Chasers and some girls on the team. 

The next part will be the weekend. Again Quidditch and a truth or dare game. 


	6. A weekend in Slytherin

Wow! I got 10 reviews already and am on two favorites lists! You make me so happy! 

baby chan: Thank you!   
Unicorn*angel: I will, promised.   
Yiota: I hope that I'll find a beta soon, so that I can make the reading easier for you.   
LilyAyl: I'm glad you liked the prank, I was afraid you guys would be angry when I made Harry play a prank on Gryffindor. I'll tell you about updates.   
SoulSister: Thanks, and I'll work on the descriptions.   
May: Thank you for reviewing all the chapters. You're right, I neglected Draco a bit. From chapter six on it'll change. I haven't decided yet how Harry will handle his Voldemort and Lucius problems, but his scar will hurt soon, maybe even as a Christmas gift from Voldie… And there *is* already a Death Eater close, which's identity will hopefully be a surprise both for Harry and my readers. I haven't decided yet who's responsible for the rat attack. I'm glad you like Neville and Blaise together. 

Author: Artemis (artemis1000@gmx.net)   
Disclaimer: Harry Potter, plot and all her characters belong to JKR and her publishing companies, which's names I don't know. No copyright infringement intended. Don't bother suing, my "fortune" isn't worth the trouble. I only own the idea to this story.   
Timeline: In their fifth year, 1995/1996   
Rating: R for strong language   
Chapter: 6/15   
Pairings: Blaise Zabini/Neville, Draco/Harry   
Summary: Harry gets used to being Slytherin seeker, Draco to being Beater, the whole team has Quidditch training. When the boys are bored, they play truth or dare and some interesting things are found out…   


**Silver Snake**   
**_By Artemis (Artemis1000@gmx.net)_**

Chapter six: A weekend in Slytherin - Saturday and Sunday 

"Harry, that was great!", cheered Blaise on. "Now we add the Beaters, you'll have to play against both of them." 

"And who's going to protect me from Bludgers?" 

"No one, you'll have to keep your eyes open." 

The Boy Who Lived groaned resigned and kicked off again. 

He'd tried already to haggle with Blaise, but in the end he made it only harder for him. Luckily Malfoy was team captain, not Zabini or they would all spend even more time in the infirmary. If someone had told him a couple of weeks ago that he would be happy about Draco Malfoy as his captain… but even he was much better than Blaise Zabini. What the hell saw Neville in the guy? He's sadistic, mean and just a terrible human being that didn't deserved even the name terrible human being for making him play against two Beaters! 

Neville watched the fuming boy with a mix of amusement and sympathy. He didn't understood this particular decision of his boyfriend either - after all Harry could get seriously hurt - but he didn't dared to complain. Neville had already found out the hard way that Blaise wasn't very understanding if he believed private life and Quidditch were mixed up. 

Draco in the contrary was very happy with this decision. Finally he's able to teach Potter a lesson and he even had the right to do so. He'd his reasons for letting Blaise train the team whenever he couldn't…   


"This was the most hellish Quidditch morning in my whole life!", told Harry Ron and Hermione in the early afternoon. 

Hermione had insisted that they met in the library for a revision. She didn't accepted week off and resorting as excuses to call studying off, even if it's only once or twice. After all they would have another two school days before Christmas break… "If you so strongly dislike the way Malfoy leads the Slytherin team, why were you so eager to become a member then?", pointed Hermione with her sharp logic out. 

"I told you already that it wasn't about Slytherin. I just want to play Quidditch. And since I am a Slytherin I'm supposed to do that at the Slytherin Quidditch team. But that's not the point. I can handle Malfoy, he's not such a bad captain. The problem is Zabini, he can be a real pain in the neck if he wants to. And he wants to most of the time at the Quidditch pitch… I don't understand it. All the time he's a sociable person – in fact the nicest Slytherin I know - but if it's about Quidditch. It's like he becomes a different person. Really creepy. And mean." 

"Well, so maybe he's a bit harsh. He can't be worse than the captains we had till now at Gryffindor. And even if he is, he isn't the captain, he can't boss you around unless you let him", suggested Ron. 

"But Malfoy backs him always!" 

"Did you ever considered that the Slytherin team is just training harder than the Gryffindor team? I mean, the Ravenclaw team trains also six hours each day in preparation for the match against Slytherin and they're no sadists", was Hermione's cool analysis. 

"Zabini is just terrible, you've no idea. Today he made me play against two Beaters at the same time, without anyone to protect me against the Bludgers!" 

Hermione couldn't really understand why someone could get such agitated only about Quidditch. Her friends should rather spend their time studying, that would be of much more use for them. "Harry, if you have such big problems with the way Zabini is commanding the team, then talk to Malfoy. He's the captain, he can tell Zabini off. And now focus on our revision. You too, Ron. We'll study until you both know the three last potions by heart." 

"But…" 

"No buts, Harry. We need this revision. Wouldn't it be just like Professor Snape to make a surprise test one day before our Christmas holidays start? Few students will expect it, it's the perfect opportunity to pester the Gryffindors." 

"But I'm a Slytherin", he protested weakly. 

"Professor Snape hates you personally, he won't very likely stop just because you wear now a green scarf. We begin with the…"   


Draco flopped with a sigh down on his four-poster bed. "Finally we're rid of the Gryffindors!" 

"They are no longer Gryffindors and "rid of them" we won't be for another two and a half years. Seamus is visiting with Neville some of their Gryff friends in Ravenclaw, Harry is studying with his old friends and will later visit Professor Lupin - all of them will be back in some hours." 

The blonde wondered briefly how Blaise knew always where their roommates were, but he'd given up a long time to figure it out. "I know. But it's the first time we have the dorm to ourselves." 

"Aye. What do you wanna do, Drac? Plan some pranks? Figure a new way out to make Gryffindor potions explode and the monsters in Care for Magical Creatures go for them? Revise this cool new Dark Arts book?" He couldn't restrain himself from teasing his best friend and adding, "rave about Potter?" 

"Blaise, stop it this instance! I don't want you to start this ridiculous topic again. Pranks sound good." 

"Annoying you sounds even better." 

"*Blaise*…!" 

"Yes, my darling?", answered Blaise in an innocent singsong. 

"You're so frustrating, sometimes I could…" 

"You see? You freak as soon as I imply you could be attracted to Harry Potter. What does that says about your feelings for him, huh? Denial!" 

"I'm not into denial and now quit it!" 

"You're again getting aggressive. And defensive." The only answer Blaise got was silence. He hadn't expected anything else. Even a sulking Draco was better than a whining one and he enjoyed having occasionally the last word. Intent to enjoy the time for himself, the Slytherin fetched himself a gothic novel and drew the curtains around his bed.   


"Harry! What are you doing here?" 

"Hello Professor Lupin. I just wanted to drop in and ask about a DADA extra credit assignment." 

"Come in and take a seat. Would you like a cup of hot chocolate?" 

"Please." It's strange to sit here as a Slytherin, but the Boy Who Lived was glad that at least one person didn't treated him different. He's already dreading Monday, when he'd have Transfiguration and Potions, it'd be nice when he could look forward at least to one subject. 

Remus handed Harry hot chocolate, for himself he'd gotten tea. "How are you doing at Slytherin, Harry? Did you already made friends?" 

"Thanks, friends would be an exaggeration, but I get along with Malfoy and Zabini. We have many differences and we still dislike each other, but… you don't have to be worried that we'll kill each other anytime soon, if you meant that." 

"It's good to hear that. The resorting is for the best, Harry, looking back at your school in the future you'll agree with me. You can learn a lot at a different House." 

"I suppose. For the time being I'm just happy that we all get along quite well and I'm still on the Quidditch team. Did you heard that I'm going to be Slytherin Seeker?" 

"No, I didn't knew that." 

"Draco gave the position to me, but I'm not sure why. Whenever I tried to talk to him about it he talked about everything but this. You have to come to our game, Professor, I'm sure we're going to win." 

"Oh I hope so, Harry. And I promise that I'll watch." Professor Lupin smiled slightly. That Harry had referred naturally to the Slytherin team as "we" was giving him hope the boy wouldn't have as many problems as the other teachers expected in his new House. 

"Thanks." Harry told his favourite teacher that they're training hard for the game against Ravenclaw, about the chess tournament and that the Slytherin didn't seemed to mind Ron's and Hermione's occasional visits. He didn't told anything about the training debacle, though, what would Professor Lupin think of him if he's whining directly? After that the subject changed to Harry's extra credit, his excuse for the visit. 

"Then I expect your paper due 1st February. It's almost dinner time. Maybe you should return to the dungeons now, Harry? Your roommates will be wondering where you are." 

"Okay. See you Monday, Professor."   


"I'm bored!" 

"I can't remember a time when you weren't bored, Draco." 

"Well, Blaise, I don't have a boyfriend to keep me entertained!", the blonde snapped. 

Blaise shook his head amused, "you're so touchy, Draco, sometimes it's really ridiculous." 

"Thanks, that means a lot coming from you." 

"Oh just buzz off!" 

"How about a game?", suggested Seamus. 

Harry shuddered at the mere idea what Seamus could have in mind. Since they're in Slytherin his roommate became even more nosy and gossipy, if that's possible. "You proposing a game usually means that you plan something devious." 

"Yes or no?" 

"No." 

"Scared, Potter?", inquired Draco smirking. 

"Of course not. Let's just get over with your bloody game as fast and painlessly as possible, okay?" 

"Nope. Seeing you guys squirm is *soo* much more fun. Do all of you know what truth or dare is?" 

Draco glared at Harry, who's the only one to nod, "what's that, a muggle game?" 

"U-huh." After he'd explained the wizard-born the rules and pilfered Draco's empty butterbeer bottle, Seamus asked, "who wants to start? Harry, how about you?" 

Harry sighed resigned, having accepted his fate and spun a bottle. With Draco Malfoy around he couldn't possibly chicken, but he wasn't looking forward to this night either. When he'd last played truth or dare with Seamus two months ago he'd to try and chat Professor Snape up… needless to say this earned him a whole month of detention and a visit to Dumbledore, who's luckily amused by his predicament. 

The bottle pointed to Blaise. Difficult, he knew he would think for Draco of something embarrassing, but he barely knew Zabini. "Blaise, truth or dare." 

"Truth." 

"What is the worst thing you ever did for money?", Harry asked. 

Blaise thought about the question for a long time, then he answered quietly, "I think that was vowing to become a Death Eater after school." 

This had the effect to be expected. Harry and Seamus gaped at him, not sure whether he's joking. Harry, who regained the ability to speak first, asked, "but… that's impossible … I never thought… how…?" 

Blaise allowed himself a small smile, "I know I'm not the typical Death Eater, but I am going to be one." 

Harry's confusion turned quickly to alarm. That was one thing he hadn't expected to find out during this game. And from the look on Blaise's face it didn't seemed to be a joke. "Woah! You'll really become a Death Eater?! You would tell me if that was a really sick joke, wouldn't you?" 

"I'm not as immature as Draco, Harry. There is a Russian saying my dad told me, I don't remember the exact wording, but it says that someone who flatters you either has betrayed you or is planning to betray you. You should take that to heart - if not for your own sake then for my poor fellow Death Eater's sake who would have to worry about getting your blood out of their robe", he joked. 

"Which could be you as far as I know", insisted Harry, but couldn't resist a small smile. 

"Don't worry about that, you're a fellow Slytherin and a friend, I wouldn't betray you. And frankly – but that can't leave the room – I don't care much about the Death Eaters and the Dark Lord. If I'll have to I'll let them put the stupid Dark Mark on my forearm, but that's about all. Now I believe it's my turn. Seamus, truth or dare?" 

"Dare." 

"I dare you to kiss the person you love or have a crush on." 

"But she's not here." 

"Then you kiss her when you see her next. How about tomorrow while breakfast in the Great Hall?", the dark-haired Slytherin added maliciously. 

"Nope, rather not. Draco, truth or dare?" 

"Dare." 

"Kiss Harry. And I mean a long kiss with tongue, not just a peck on the cheek." 

"Hey, that's not fair! It's Malfoy's bet, not mine", complained Harry, but further protests were stopped when Draco kissed him. 

Well, that's rather interesting, thought Seamus. He'd expected Draco to whine a long time about his dare and then to take truth. But he'd been willing, almost a bit too willing… He turned to Zabini, who's although a future Death Eater undoubtedly the best source for juicy gossip in Slytherin. "Blaise, is there something I should know about Harry and Draco…?" 

"You only noticed now? Goodness, are you slow! Pansy and me figured already a year or something like that ago that Draco has a crush on Potter." 

"I'm not slow!" To emphasize his words Seamus wagged his butterbeer bottle in Blaise's face. "In case you forgot, a week ago you guys were still threatening to beat us up whenever we met." 

"Sorry about that, we didn't meant it. It's just that you can't expect us to be friendly to Gryffindors, that would be really fatal for our reputation…" 

"Whatever. Oh, I have to get my camera!", whooped Seamus when he saw that his roommates were still kissing, and by now quite passionately. The Slytherin rummaged through his trunk in search of his instant camera, Blaise and Neville followed his example. 

Finally the cameras were fished from the mess that had formerly been their trunks and three flashlights went off at the same time. 

That finally succeeded in making the boys realize that they're kissing in front of all their dorm mates. They sprung apart, twin horrified expressions on their faces. Then two green and two grey eyes turned to Seamus and narrowed dangerously. 

"Draco, you're ought to spin now!", said Seamus hastily. He's starting to get afraid for his dear life… 

The bottle pointed at Harry and the former Gryffindor groaned. "Truth." 

"If you would have to kiss someone in this room, whom would you choose?" 

Harry blushed bright red and muttered something unintelligible under his breath. 

"Say that again, Potter." 

"You. But only because I kissed you already and it can't get any more embarrassing!", Harry added hastily. 

"Yeah, sure, Potter. Now spin before we die of old age." 

"Neville, truth or dare?" 

"Truth." 

"Have you and Blaise yet…?", asked Harry with a malicious smirk of his own. 

"Potter, that's non of your business." Blaise's voice could've cut steel and the death glare he shot his way made Harry wish desperately to be at the other end of the universe. 

Oops, maybe he should've trusted his instincts and asked a different question… "Neville has to answer or do a dare", Harry insisted. 

Neville was bright red from embarrassment, but the mere thought of a dare made him even more nervous than having to answer Harry's question. Maybe he would have to ask for a potions extra credit assignment… When he thought about it answering wasn't such horrible, after all. At least Harry wouldn't take points from Gryffindor… Slytherin because he melted another cauldron. Almost imperceptible he shook his head and spun the bottle. 

"Truth", said Seamus when the bottle pointed against to him. 

The boy chewed his bottom lip nervously. He couldn't think of any question that would make Seamus uncomfortable. 

Blaise didn't had such problems and whispered something into his ear. 

"Thanks, that one's good! Seamus, have you ever kissed a boy?" 

"Yes." 

"Whom? Oh come on, Seamus, you can tell us!", urged Harry gleefully. The black-haired boy opened another bottle of butterbeer and transfigured the pack of cereals Madame Pomfrey had given him the last time he visited the hospital wing into popcorn. "Here you are, guys, now we're ready for the party." 

Seamus looked now quite nervous. "We're all friends right? And I can still take the dare, can't I?" 

"You made me kiss *Potter* and you expect me to feel sorry for you, Finnegan?!" 

Harry looked slightly hurt at this, but hid it quickly behind the popcorn bowl. Really, what had he expected? That Draco Malfoy of all people would throw himself on him and declare his undying love? The dark-haired boy snorted quietly. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't quite kill the little voice in the back of his mind that asked, "wouldn't you have liked that…?" 

"Okay, I'll tell you, but you've to promise never ever to tell anyone. We're both drunk and Ron was around…" 

"You've to have been smashed badly to kiss the Weasel!", snickered Blaise. 

Draco was triumphant, "I knew it, I knew it!" 

"*Ron*? You kissed *Ron*, Seamus?!", Harry gasped. 

Neville had choked on his butterbeer when he laughed at the same time he drunk and was in no state to do anything but gasp futilely for breath. 

"Blaise, truth or dare?" 

"Against my better knowledge I pick truth." 

"Who's your first crush?" 

"Cedric Diggory", admitted Blaise blushing. Before someone could make fun of his first crush, he spun the bottle again. "Now let's see who's next…" It landed on Harry. "Great! Well, Harry Potter, truth or dare?" 

"Truth." Harry was sure that he'd no secret as embarrassing as the dare Zabini would give him. 

"Perfect, just perfect!" Blaise threw a predatory smirk at Harry when he asked, "who is responsible for that little redecoration prank last week, huh?" 

"Dare!" 

"I dare you to wear for 24 hours openly a dark mark glamour and tell nobody that it's only a glamour." 

Harry looked defeated. Where was this Gryffindor bravery when he really needed it? Well, better get over with it, they would lynch him anyway… "I did it. Both pranks, here and in the Gryffindor common room." Now the dark-haired boy hoped only fervently two things: that nobody became suspected Ron and Herm helped him and that he wouldn't get detention for his remaining years at Hogwarts. 

Draco and Blaise shared a meaningful look while the other two looked were somewhere between awed and indignant. When he'd finally come to a silent agreement with Draco, Blaise stood up suggesting, "guys, let's go to bed. It's already past midnight, we're going to leave at half past eight for Hogsmeade and I don't want to buy some crap for Christmas presents just because I was too tired to realize what I got. Remember, that's our last Hogsmeade day before Christmas, Yule, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Winter solstice – hence we have a lot of shopping to do and little time." 

That reminder triggered Harry's memory and he blanched, slapping his forehead. "Bloody hell! I'm supposed to go shopping with Hermione and Ron, she'll kill me when she finds out I was up all night and she will, she figures always everything out!"   


Despite his worry for Hermione's chiding and his Christmas presents Harry couldn't fall asleep, no matter how hard he tried. 

He'd really kissed Draco Malfoy and he hadn't been disgusted by it like he'd thought he would. At first he thought it would only be a quick kiss to satisfy the sadistic audience, otherwise known as dorm mates, but somehow it hadn't turned out the way he expected… 

Hell, he wasn't supposed to like it! Kissing Draco was bad enough, but if his friends found out he'd enjoyed it they would immediately put him into the nearest madhouse and hire the best psychiatrist of the world for him - and he couldn't even blame them. 

If he'd only learned his lesson and never played again truth or dare… 

When he's just slipping off into a doze an impatient owl tapped at the window. Harry jumped hastily out of his bed and hurried to the window, almost falling over his own feet in his haste. Maybe this was Sirius' letter! 

But when he let the owl inside he saw that it was a school owl, not Hedwig. Harry took the note off from the owl's leg and while it's busy with a treat, he opened the letter. 

_Dear Harry,___

_I got just an owl that Snuffles will visit you in the Christmas holidays.___

_Professor Lupin_

Harry was glad Sirius was sensible enough not to send him any owls to the dungeons, there was no say who would open his letters after all, but it also hurt that he wasn't even anymore capable of receiving owls from his godfather like ordinary Hogwarts students. 

But, he realized, Sirius was coming to Hogwarts? That was not only insane, it's also very complicated this time. Sirius couldn't know that all the other fifth year boys were going to stay as well. As far as he's informed not even Snape as their Head of House was told about their plans already, Remus couldn't possibly have warned Sirius about this problem. And Harry really couldn't imagine Sirius Black staying all their holidays in the Slytherin dorms with him and his dorm mates in dog form without anyone becoming suspicious. If Malfoy and Zabini even let him stay long enough… 

Draco Malfoy. The cause of his insomnia tonight… 

He caught himself several times thinking about Draco while he scribbled two notes. 

_Professor,___

_Thank you for forwarding Snuffle's message. I'm looking forward to his visit.___

_See you later_   
_Harry_

And another piece of parchment. 

_Hi Sirius!___

_I'm so happy that you'll spend Christmas with me!___

_But please be careful, all fifth year Slytherin boys – Seamus Finnegan, Neville Longbottom, Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini – will stay because of the Quidditch games shortly after the holidays. By the way, it would be great if you could watch it, we'll play on January the 14th.___

_See you at Christmas.___

_Bye_   
_Harry_

Crawling back under the covers of his four-poster but leaving the hangings open watched the school owl leave with Professor Lupin's and Hedwig with Sirius' letter. 

But his mind was occupied solely by a boy with blonde hair and grey eyes. He couldn't explain why he's incapable of getting Draco out of his head since they kissed. It's no secret at Hogwarts that Draco Malfoy was attractive, but it's also no secret that he hated the other boy more than anyone else. Well, he hated Voldemort more, but that's totally different. Now suddenly it wasn't so easy anymore. He couldn't sleep because of Draco and he's pretty sure that the other boy had enjoyed their kiss as well. Even if he'd been just as nasty as ever afterwards… 

That was Harry's last thought before his troubled mind fell into blissful oblivion.   


The third time in less then a week Harry would be awoken rather unfriendly. This time it's going to be neither a dead rat nor a wet washcloth, though. 

When Seamus woke up to find his dorm mates still all asleep and Harry's curtains left open, the opportunity was just irresistible… 

Seamus sneaked to the terrarium next to Blaise's bed, where his small brown snake Lorene was dozing. The snake didn't looked very dangerous, but the Slytherin still didn't felt like finding out if her looks were deceiving. So he quickly opened the top of the terrarium that's charmed so it would be bigger inside than from the outside, took Lorene out the way they'd learned in Care for Magical Creatures and hurried with her over to Harry's bed. 

When he'd arrived at the parselmouth's side an awake Lorene hissed angrily at him, tried at the same time to get out of his grip and bite him. Only just Seamus managed to throw her under Harry's duvet before he made first-hand experience with her fangs. "Urgh, that was narrow!"   


Something cold slithering over his bare chest achieved what Seamus' fight with Lorene hadn't. Harry woke slowly up. "What… who… Hey, I was just having a promising dream about Draco, couldn't you have waked me afterwards?", he muttered half-asleep and tried to pat the intruder away. 

Lorene hissed a snake-chuckle, her tiny split tongue flicking out, and made herself comfortable on Harry's chest. She knew the boy could understand her, he translated often for her and her master, she just had to wait till he's awake, then he would teach the silly boy to interrupt her naps again. 

"Huh?", asked Harry in parseltongue. 

"Take me back to my home, the silly boy threw me into your bed to scare you. He seemed to have forgotten that you're a parselmouth." 

"Who is the silly boy? Your master? Draco? Neville? Maybe Seamus?" 

"You call him Seamus." 

"How calming to know that at least Seamus' acting true to type", grumbled Harry. "I still have two hours till I've to leave for Hogsmeade, how about we take another nap? You can sleep on the blanket if you want to."   


Blaise Zabini stood frowning in front of his spacious – and still packed – wardrobe, taking two dozen robes out, holding them in front of him and hanging them again up after thoroughly analysing the pros and cons. 

Finally he'd picked two robes, a knee-deep silvery-green velvet robe with silver clasps and trimmings and a warmer, full-length velvet bordeaux robe. "But I can't wear two, now *that* would look really *really* stupid…" The boy worried his bottom lip for a while in deep concentration. Usually he wasn't quite such vain, that's Draco's department, but today was the first time he'd have a date with Neville and he wanted to look smashing. 

Draco rolled his eyes and pushed the bordeaux robes into Blaise's arms, "take this, you're gonna freeze your ass off if you wear the short one." 

"And you look like a cherry. A sexy cherry, but a cherry nonetheless…" 

"Hmph!" The blonde Slytherin opened the clasps of his red robes again after only closing them a moment ago and put everyday black school robes on. His winter robes were still made of fine velvet, but at least there were no black cherries… 

"Aw how sweet", mocked the dark-haired Slytherin. "Just one questions: are you going to go to a burial or Christmas shopping?" 

Maybe he'd jumped to conclusions… But then again, Draco reminded himself, Blaise hadn't been ever satisfied with his outfit since they befriended as eleven years olds. "Just for your information, that's the same school robes you wear as well." 

"Fine, that round goes to you. But I couldn't help wondering whether kissing Potter affected you a bit more than you would like to admit, considering that you didn't went to bed till three – and kept me all the time prisoner in the common room." 

"Blaise, just drop it, will you? I don't like Potter and if you ever tell anyone about this ridiculous idea of you I'm going to kill you with my own hands!" 

"Fine, but don't get all whiny if Potter finds himself another boyfriend, there are many pretty boys in Slytherin House…" 

With a jolt Harry woke again. He jolted upright in his bed and shouted indignantly, "you bastards! You ended the truth or dare game before I could find out who put the dead rat into my bed!" But his roommates only looked at the black-haired boy with the same angelic expressions. He groaned exasperated and fell back into his bed. Once his head was again buried under his pillow, Harry slurred, "sleeeepy, Seamus no snakes. G'night." 

Draco sighed in relief when he saw the look on Blaise's face. His friend had found himself finally a new victim. 

"Seamus? You don't happen to know who's responsible for Lorene sleeping next to Potter's bed, do you…?" 

The icy look he received only made Seamus even more nervous. "But… but it's only a joke! I only wanted to scare Harry!" 

He approached the frightened ex-Gryffindor like a predator it's prey, relishing in his fear. He didn't cared much for the Death Eaters, it's only a job, but the fear he's able to instil with it was the best part of it. "Well, obviously it didn't worked! If I ever see you anywhere near my snake or anything else that belongs to me I'll skin you and feed you your own heart! And you can trust me that it's not a very pleasant procedure…" 

The Irishman gulped. "I promise, I won't ever do it again." 

"Fine. Now, Finnegan, while we've breakfast you're going to wake Potter up. I don't want him to be late, if he can't visit Hogsmeade I'll make you personally responsible. And while you're alone with him, making sure he won't be late, you'll have plenty opportunities to apologize for your prank…"   


The travel from Hogwarts to Hogsmeade was spent for the Slytherin fifth year boys separately. 

Harry shared a carriage with Ron and Hermione, glad about the opportunity to spend again some time only with his two best friends. 

The old group around Draco with the now Gryffindors Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle and Hufflepuff Pansy Parkinson shared another carriage. 

Blaise preferred to keep a watchful eye on his boyfriend, so to his infinite annoyance he'd to sit not only with Seamus - whom he hadn't forgiven the snake incident yet – but also with Hufflepuff Dean Thomas. 

Hermione and Ron exchanged a nervous glance, both urging the other to start. Finally it's her who spoke up first, "Harry, I'll go home for Christmas. My grandparents promised to visit for a week or two and I haven't seen them for a long time." 

"That's okay, I understand." 

"Yes, Harry, but… I am going as well." 

"Please, Ron? I don't want to spend Christmas without any of you." 

"Ginny and me both tried to convince my parents that one of us has to stay with you, but they insist that both of us come home. Charlie and Bill will both visit with their fiancées and mum wants them to get a good impression." 

"Oh well, I guess it can't be changed then. I wish I could come along with you, but I told Malfoy already that I'll stay and train for the match, I can't back out now or I'll never live it down and am kicked off the team. And most importantly, Sirius will come to visit and I don't think I can take him to the Burrow." 

"We'll send you your presents and write you every day an owl…", Hermione tried to comfort her friend. 

"Thanks, and I appreciate it. It's just… hard to explain, but this is the first Christmas I'll have to spend alone since I got away from the Dursleys. The only people I know will stay are Malfoy, Blaise, Seamus, Neville, Attwood, Mitchell and me of course. It'll get kinda lonely…" 

"I'm sure it won't be as bad as you imagine it." 

Well, it wouldn't be bad at all if he didn't had to think all the time about Draco… Harry plastered a fake smile on his face, "yes, you're right. I'm sure we'll get along fine. It's not like I wouldn't have anything to do, between that hellish torture Malfoy and Blaise call practice and doing all the homework Snape is sure to give us I can still help Hagrid and spend time with Hedwig, she's to feel neglected." 

"Let's not think about the gloomy stuff. What are you going to give me for Christmas? Please, I *have* to know!", begged Ron. 

tbc… 

Hope you enjoyed the chapter. I'm very, very sorry that it took me so long and that I'm such a lazy bitch. I'd writer's block for this story – like for most others – and I couldn't think of a new chapter for The Debt if my life depended on it. But now I'll post new chapters faster. 

Btw, I found the lyrics to a really great song that I think sums pretty good up how Harry feels about his life as a hero against his will. 

You're part of some heaven, but you're feeling like hell.   
an interesting ideal for someone to sell.   
You're high on your profile (but you) wanna lay low.   
You're living the lifestyle right here on public show,   
In control, so smile as they come and go and… 

Everybody loves you   
for every single step you take   
and everybody knows you   
for every single word you say   
and you know that it is true   
no one knows you better than you do 

One look in the mirror (and tell me) what do you see?   
A person quite ordinary that you used to be   
A little more make-up will help to erase   
Enough of the memories you need to play the game,   
all the same, everyday in your own way and… 

Everybody loves you   
for every single step you take   
and everybody knows you   
for every single word you say   
and you know that it is true   
no one knows you better than you do 

Could you throw a shadow?   
(There's a dark side to us all)   
Would we see you cry?   
(No, I've never stopped and tried)   
Surrounded by good intentions   
(But you're still misunderstood)   
Remember who you'll leave behind… 

Everybody loves you   
for every single step you take   
and everybody knows you   
for every single word you say   
and you know that it is true   
no one knows you better than you do 

Sasha, „Everybody Loves You" 


	7. 'Twas the night before Christmas

Shinigami: *lol* They'll take their time for the "horizontal mambo" but in the end they'll get to that part. Sorry, I still couldn't decide who's responsible for the rat attack. It's going to be in the next chapter, promised.   
Hana-chan: Thank you. Why Neville's put into Slytherin I'm going to explain in chapter eight or nine.   
Prophetess of Hearts: Thanks for reminding me of that, I totally forgot about Harry's snake *blush*   
Fireangle: Thank you.   
Celestinne: *g* I'll work on the tenses. Thank you for the compliment.   
Lain: Thank you. 

Author: Artemis (artemis1000@gmx.net)   
Disclaimer: Harry Potter, plot and all her characters belong to JKR and her publishing companies, which's names I don't know. No copyright infringement intended. Don't bother suing, my "fortune" isn't worth the trouble. I only own the idea to this story.   
Timeline: In their fifth year, 1995/1996   
Rating: PG-13, I guess   
Chapter: 7/15   
Pairings: Draco/Harry, Blaise Zabini/Neville   
Summary: Potions class, Sirius and Draco is still struggling with the kiss.   


**Silver Snake**   
**_By Artemis (Artemis1000@gmx.net)_**

Chapter seven: 'Twas the night before Christmas – week 2   


For poor Harry the new week started like the old had ended. 

This time the cause of his rude waking was Draco's refinement of the "washcloth alarm"… 

"Wakey-wakey, Potter!", smirked Draco and emptied a bucket full of ice cubes over his long-time rival. 

"Urgh! What did you do that for, Malfoy?!" Harry's immediately awake, being by now subconscious prepared to the waking ritual. 

"You didn't wanted to wake up." 

"Well, how about proving some manners when you wake me? Oh wait, you don't even have an idea what manners are!" 

"I *am* familiar with good behaviour, in the contrary to you. If you'd some manners you wouldn't be such ungrateful. After all I saved you trouble with Snape. But don't think I did it because of you, I'm just worried that he takes house points from us because of you. You have exactly 34 minutes till Potions!" 

Harry's eyes widened in horror. Oh wasn't that a great start for his school career in Slytherin, he's already late before the first lesson with his head of house who hated him had started…! He jumped out of the bed and to the bathroom door. "Go alone to the Great Hall, Draco, I'll be with you guys soon!", the Boy Who Lived shouted just before the bathroom door closed behind him. 

Draco's eyes widened in something akin to shock and disbelief as he stared onto the closed bathroom door. Was he a certified nutcase like his friends always claimed or did Harry Potter really call him by his first name…?   


"Isn't that a great way to start a week, Potions and Snape first thing in the morning…!", grumbled Seamus when he plopped down between Draco and Pansy. "Morning guys." 

Pansy looked understandingly at the boy, "yes, I can see what you mean, Professor Snape wasn't exactly nice to the students that weren't Slytherins. Frankly, I dread my first double Potions with Ravenclaw – this afternoon – myself. But you're no longer a Gryffindor, Seamus, he doesn't has any reason to let you fail and deduct house points without reason." 

This cheered Seamus a bit up, "are you sure?" 

"Of course! Why should he harm Slytherin himself? I wouldn't be surprised if he continued to make Harry Potter's life difficult, but that's personal." 

Harry just happened to overhear that. "Oh thanks, you're such an expert at cheering me up!" 

The blonde girl turned her nose up, a bit affronted. She's very good at raising people's spirits, that ungrateful Gryffindor just couldn't see it! "Good morning to you too, Potter." 

"Uh, how's this going to work today with Potions? Can we keep our seats or do we have to move onto the Slytherin side?" 

"Finnegan, I have no clue and if you want an answer so badly then go ask Snape", Draco answered curtly before putting another spoonful porridge into his mouth and pulling a face at the taste. 

He just wanted some time alone, to sort his feelings out and preferably forget about the damned truth or dare game fully. And it wasn't very helpful if everyone tried hard to distract him from that task. Of course he'd kept Blaise all night up – and his friend couldn't tire of complaining about it – but then he'd wanted not to think about Harry. He'd hoped that if he just denied the kiss had ever happened it wouldn't have happened. Now the circumstances were totally different. He'd given up on the idea of not thinking about the black-haired Boy Who Lived. It's anyway a futile and ridiculous thing to do, ignoring Harry was impossible. 

"Hey Draco, someone in that head?" 

"What is it now, Pansy?!" 

"No need to get all defensive, I just wanted to ask whether you're okay. You looked so lost in thoughts. You know, that "I'm in love" kind of dreamy look and since you haven't told me about anyone I couldn't help getting a bit curious…" She shared a knowing grin with Seamus and Blaise. 

Alarm bells went off in Harry's head. He wouldn't survive it if Pansy found out about Saturday and announced it to the whole student body… "Where are the pancakes?", he hurriedly asked and prayed fervently prayed that nobody became suspicious. 

Neville looked mournfully at his breakfast. "Only porridge, orange juice, milk and hot chocolate today." 

Blaise gave him a peck on the check and assured, "I'm sure the house elves are going to make a great banquet for Christmas, maybe even with a Christmas tree, decorations and presents." Truthfully, Blaise didn't had a clue since he never stayed for Christmas before, but he didn't cared for the truth right now anyway. Better tell Neville something wrong now than to have him be grouchy all day. "Hey, we could bribe the house elves and ask them to bring at Christmas' Eve or boxing day tables, chairs and food into the common room, so we can have a dinner by ourselves. And when do you think we'll find out who the new prefect is going to be? I bet Dumbledore will make Harry prefect." 

Harry looked horrified up from the intense study of his porridge. "But I don't want to!", he exclaimed. 

"Don't be so selfish, Potter! If Dumbledore asks you you have to accept, I betted a whole ten galleons on you!" 

"Boys", cooed Pansy sweetly, "at this rate you'll be late for Potions." Hustle and bustle around her, a moment later the Hufflepuff was alone. She frowned, "oh well, Herbology with Ravenclaw isn't so bad. *And boys, remember, stick to "the plan"*!", she yelled after them.   


"Cool that you still want to be my partner." 

"It's a matter of course", shrugged Harry nonchalant. He had a smile on his face that you could almost call malicious when he piled his potions materials onto the desk. 

It unsettled Ron greatly. His eyes flickered nervously through the room and he realized that all the Slytherins had that look on their face. It didn't did anything to calm his nerves. Finally the Gryffindor couldn't bear it anymore and asked, "what was that plan Parkinson bellowed about?" Although he wasn't sure he wanted to know. 

"You'll find out."   


Draco took his seat in the last but one row a bit hesitantly. 

With Pansy in Hufflepuff, Vincent and Gregory sitting together and Blaise having promised that he'd work with Neville, he didn't knew who'd become his partner. Well, with all this Potions disasters the Sorting Hat had put into Slytherin he could be grateful if it wasn't a Squib… 

"Hi! Now tell me, Draco, what was that between Harry and you? Had fun, hadn't you?" 

Of all the possible people… "Finnegan, there was absolutely nothing between Potter and me. And if you could kindly shut up now before you start any rumours." 

"Oh, don't worry about that, the rumours are already in circulation", Seamus told him merrily and beamed devastatingly at Draco. 

He could feel any colour draining from his face. But no, that couldn't be true. If his father found out that people in school were gossiping about him and Harry Potter… "I'm *so* dead…!" 

Seamus eyed his housemate and asked now a bit worried, "Draco, are you okay? You don't look very healthy, maybe you should go and see Madame Pomfrey." 

"Who's responsible for the rumours?" 

"Uh… um…" A nervous glance around the room. Maybe if he ran right now, when Draco was still shocked, he'd survive till lunch… 

"*Finnegan*! What the bloody hell were you thinking? For god's sake, my parents are going to skin me alive if, *when* they find out!" 

"But why? Harry is now a Slytherin and he's a decent boy and…" Seamus interrupted himself as realization hit him, "a boy, of course! You haven't come out of the closet yet!" 

Just a tad too loud for the whole classroom not to overhear. The Slytherins and the ex Slytherins laughed knowingly, the rest looked just confused. 

Draco wanted to hit his head against the table and use Seamus as his Unforgivable curses guinea pig, just the order he'd troubles to decide. Or better yet, a guillotine, he anyway never used his head, nobody would notice, thought the vindictive blonde. 

Blaise interrupted his cuddling session with Neville to stand up and pretend to sniffle. "Draco, how could you do that to me? I'm your best friend in the world for five years and instead of telling me first that you like boys you tell that… that Gryffindor tart!" 

In spite of wanting to roll laughing around the floor Seamus looked affronted, "tart yourself!" 

Vincent and Gregory turned as one to Seamus and started their own mock argument. "Finnegan, don't call my friend a tart", threatened Vincent Crabbe. 

Seamus stuck his tongue out. Draco smacked him over his head. "Ouch! Git!" *Ouch*!", he screamed like in pain and clutched his arm. "Poor me, I'll die!" 

Ron looked still confused, but Harry knew very well what game his friends were playing. He stood up as well and puffed his chest melodramatically out, "oh Blaise, my beloved, don't mourn for him, I can't live this lie anymore and have to proclaim my undying love to you!" 

Now the Gryffindors looked so confused, you could virtually see the comic thought bubbles with question marks above their heads. 

From the door said an icy voice, "Potter, Malfoy, Finnegan, Crabbe, Goyle, Zabini, that would be enough! Ten points from Gryffindor and all of you will have detention with Mister Filch tonight." 

"But Professor, we didn't did anything! They started it!", complained Vincent. 

Draco glared daggers at the teacher and wished fervently that he could complain to his father about this meanness. But only his mother would share his amusement and unfortunately she'd refused to get him out of trouble at school, saying that she didn't had anyone to do that for her either when she's at Hogwarts. 

"20 points, another unasked remark and I'll make it 30, Mister Crabbe." 

Snape being nice enough to warn them meant nothing good, realized the students and their nervousness increased. Even the Slytherins peeked nervously at their Head of House. 

"Today you'll brew again a Draught of Living Death potion with your partner. Only by memory. You may go now to the shelves and fetch your ingredients." The Potions Master went to his desk and leafed through the scrolls the fifth years had left on it, last week's homework. 

"Herm was right", admitted Ron in a weak, fearful voice. Although Hermione had insisted that Harry and Ron learned their last potions by heart, it didn't helped him much with Living Death. 

Harry nodded, the same feeling of dread gripping him. The class had only started moments before, he'd already gained a detention, would fail the surprise test miserably and Snape would for sure find a way to take points away because of him and then his housemates would skin him alive. "Oh lucky me, what did I do to deserve so much luck?!", he muttered angrily under his breath.   


At the other end of the dungeon classroom Neville was scared stiff. Finally he managed to choke out, "Blaise … I… when we revised that potion last time I melted my cauldron and coated Professor Snape in green slime…" 

"No problem, I did it already when I was ten years old, that potion I could do while sleepwalking. Just fetch our cauldrons while I get the ingredients." 

Neville smiled and nodded happily. Potions was still his horror subject, but now with Blaise he'd at least a fair chance…   


The potions were almost finished and Professor Snape descended once again onto the students. 

"Draco, you made the best Draught of Living Death I've seen since years, twelve points to Slytherin. Although your partner is incapable. Bottle it and clean up, you can leave then." 

"Thank you, Professor." 

"Crabbe, what colour is the potion supposed to have?" 

"Uh… blue?" 

"Taupe. Yours and Goyle's is sky-blue. Ten points from Gryffindor, that's just pitiable." 

"Longbottom." 

Neville looked like a deer caught in the headlights at the teacher. "I… I… I'm sorry, sir…", he stammered. 

Snape looked like he'd eaten a whole lemon and he didn't felt any better. He searched for a flaw in the potion, but there was none, no surprise as Blaise was one of his best students and he had seen that he did the whole potion by himself. But Malfoy-Finnegan and Zabini-Longbottom were the only pure Slytherin teams, and they really needed every single point, with Potter in their house… "Longbottom, two points from Slytherin for not taking any part in the making of the potion, Zabini, ten points to Slytherin." 

Snape was oblivious to the funny, shocked expression on Neville's face because he'd already made his next victim out. Harry's and Ron's – loud pink – sludge had started to bubble dangerously. "Potter, Weasley", he addressed the boys in a dangerously silky voice. 

"Yes, sir?", asked Harry with an innocent smile that showed nothing of his anxiety. After all he hadn't been put in Slytherin for nothing… 

Seamus mouthed silently, "now", took a small bottle out of one of his pocket and poured a few drops of colourless liquid into their cauldron. 

Blaise threw quickly a hex at Lavender to distract Snape, when he'd turned around him, Harry and Greg emptied their own bottles into their potions. 

All potions started to boil and sputter dangerously, turning lime green. The Slytherin boys, Greg and Vince took cover, Harry pulled Ron with him under the table. 

A moment later you heard four bangs, many screams and Snape bellowing death threats. 

Harry grinned cheekily at his best friend. "*That* was "the plan"." 

"We're going to loose all our house points", complained Ron at first. But when they left their hiding place and he got a good look his qualms were quickly forgotten. 

The students and teacher were covered from head to toe in lime liquid. Snape used a cleaning spell to rid himself of the potion – which worked for his clothes - but hairs, lashes and eyebrows were still dyed lime green. 

Lavender rubbed her hair frantically with the clean parts of her robes. But they stayed lime. She screamed angrily and when she heard the laughter coming from the Slytherin side, she raised her – also lime – wand. "Furnunculus! Densaugeo! Rictusempra! Tarantallegra! Relashio! Dif…" 

Snape pulled the wand out of the girl's hand. "50 points from Gryffindor and a week of detention! You can go to the hospital wing now. *But*", he raised his voice, "all of you will come back and clean the potions classroom until it gleams!" 

"But where will you teach Potions then, sir?", asked Draco, who'd gotten off light with a few sparks shot at him. 

"There are many empty classrooms at Hogwarts, don't worry, Mister Malfoy. Slytherins, I'll tell Trelawney that you won't come for Divination today, you need some time to take a shower, go to the hospital wing and recover from the curse. Write till the next class in January a 10 feet essay about the usage and misuse of toxic potions. Now get out of here!" 

Everyone hurried out of the dungeon room before Snape could change his mind and deduct even more points.   


Harry and his Slytherin dorm mates barely managed to get out of their head of house's earshot before they couldn't hold the laughter anymore back. "Oh god, that's so funny! Did you see how furious Lavender was? And Snape didn't even took any points from us!" 

"We'll have to *clean* the dirt we made, Potter. How could that be good? I won't dirty my hands with that!", complained Draco. 

Blaise nodded solemnly, "and if we continue like this we'll spend the whole holidays working detentions off. Although it's a lot of fun I think we should lay low for today and tomorrow, let's at least get these detentions over with before we earn the next ones." 

Ron let his gaze wander from one gleeful Slytherin to the other, not knowing whether he should be awed, annoyed or just disbelieving. "But why did you do it?", he asked finally. 

"Because of Divination of course, Weasel." 

Now it's Harry's turn to be confused. "Why do you take Divination if you hate it so much?" 

"Why do you?" 

"Because it's the easiest of the additional subjects." 

"Same here. When we found out how easy Divination is our whole house enrolled for it. And Trelawney's too nuts to notice when we play truant once or twice. If she complains we just say we divined that we'd be killed in one ridiculous way or another on our way to the Divinations classroom and so we didn't dared to come", Draco admitted smirking. 

"Cool, I'll try that." 

"Guys, I don't know how you feel, but I would like to go to the hospital wing now and get rid of that furuncle", complained Seamus. 

"You're right, let's go. Ron, do you and Herm feel like coming over to the Slytherin table for luncheon? If the Gryffindor schedule didn't changed we'll have a break at the same time and we won't have much time anymore. I mean, I've later Transfiguration and DADA, then detentions with Snape and Filch, tomorrow three double classes and we can only see each other at Care for Magical Creatures, that doesn't leaves us much time to spend together before you go home." 

"I don't know about Herm, but I would love to. Greg, Vince, we have to get to Transfiguration, you know how McGonagall is!" Though he's in a hurry Ron turned a last time around to the Slytherin group and remarked smirking, "oh and by the way, Malfoy, you look smashing in green!"   


Ron looked worriedly at his friend. "What's up, Harry, you're so quiet? Don't you want me to be here? Because I would understand if you'd changed your mind." 

"No, not at all! I'm sorry, Ron, it's just…" 

"Yes…?! 

Harry blushed furiously and murmured embarrassed, "nothing, forget that I ever said anything." 

"Oh? Oh! It's about Malfoy, isn't it? So that rumour about you and him kissing is true?" 

"No!" Harry had to admit himself that screeching wasn't very convincing. 

"You're weird all day, you won't tell me about it and the rumour about Malfoy is also circulating since today. What is the conclusion, huh…?" 

Harry couldn't help an amused snort, "you're spending too much time with the Ravenclaws! Now you just have to carry a tarot card set always around with you and they'll make you a honorary member." 

"Don't take the bait, Ron. Blaise and me will explain you everything, but not here, not now and not with so many people around." 

"Seamus!" That he's desperate didn't justified what Harry was about to do to himself, but it's as good as any excuse as any. He just didn't knew what to do anymore and after all Slytherins were the cunning ones… "Draco, you are Slytherin prefect, tell them to quit it if you have any interest in the whole school not believing by tomorrow that we're an item!" 

But Professor Snape had overheard the conversation since he's on his way to the Slytherin table, and ordered coldly, "Weasley, Finnegan, Zabini, leave Malfoy and Potter in peace if you don't want to earn the third detention in four hours. Potter, Professor Dumbledore wants you to come to his office before your next class, the password is jelly beans." 

"Thank you, sir." Harry looked fearfully at his breaded chicken wing. As soon as Snape was back at the staff table he whispered, "do you think he knows already about our pranks?" 

Blaise shook his head, "if he did he'd have cited all of us to him, not just you. I still believe he wants to tell you that you become prefect."   


"Hello Professor." 

"Hello Harry. Please take a seat. Do you care for some tea" 

"Please." 

"I heard about your… eventful Potions lesson. Very interesting that so many cauldrons exploded at the same time. And some of you could make a lot of money as actors after school. But that's not why I asked you to come. Harry, you know that your grade in Slytherin has only one prefect, don't you?" 

"Yes, I do, sir. Pansy is now in Hufflepuff and we have only Draco as prefect." 

"There is no reason to beat about the bushes, so, would you like to become prefect, Harry?" 

"Uh… that's a great honour and I'm flattered but…" 

"Please, I know you can handle the duties. You are a good student, you are respected in Slytherin and you took already care of the first years." 

He could do very well without the extra duties of a prefect. There were reasons why he'd declined the position while still in Gryffindor and with all the detentions he's earning now his appointments book wasn't getting any blanker… On the other hand Blaise would most likely kill him if he found out that he'd declined. His housemate had betted at least 20 galleons on him, he'd have to remember to talk him out of betting sometime, and Blaise got very nasty when he lost money… 

In the end Harry found out that he's yet not enough of a Slytherin. "Oh fine, I'll do it, but I'm not sure that I'm capable of being a good prefect." 

"You will. Here is your prefect badge." 

"Thank you very much, Professor Dumbledore. I better get going, Transfiguration…" 

"Oh, take your time, I told Minerva you would possibly miss her lesson. Have you already settled into Slytherin, Harry? I saw on the list that Miss Granger and Mister Weasley will return this year home."   


Nervously knocked Harry on the closed door of the Transfiguration classroom. 

Neville opened the door for him. "Harry, good that you're finally here, the new transfiguration is really hard, but we'll help you." 

"Thanks. Professor McGonagall, I'd to go to Professor Dumbledore, I'm sorry I'm late." 

"Mister Malfoy informed me. Take your seat, Mister Potter." 

"Yes, Professor." While McGonagall droned on about the difficulties of transfiguring a table into a palm tree Harry took the only free seat, next to Draco. "You guys were right, Dumbledore really made me prefect. Look", he pointed to his gleaming prefect badge. 

"Good. Blaise, you have to treat us to a butterbeer tonight." 

"Huh?" 

"Did I missed something?" 

"He's prefect, you've won the bet!" 

"Goody! Stupid Ravenclaw believed he could win against me with his shitty divination!" 

"Mister Zabini, mind your language! Five points from Slytherin. Your homework assignment is to master this transfiguration. I'll see you in January." 

Groans erupted from all over the classroom as the Slytherins hurried to stuff their books, quills, inks and scrolls into their bags, their minds already occupied by the close Christmas holidays. Only eight periods and then they're free for two weeks! 

"What we need is love and all we get is homework…!", complained Seamus mock-sad. 

On their way to the new classroom wondered Draco, "what do you think Lupin will teach us today?" 

"Counter-curses." 

"How do you want to know that, Potter?" 

"Because he told me so when I visited him", Harry dead-paned.   


"Herm, Ron, I miss you already." 

"I'm really sorry that you have to stay behind all by yourself, Harry. I wish I wouldn't have to go home, but my parents would be devastated if I didn't and I really want to see granny, she loves to read just like me and always listens when I talk about Hogwarts and my classes, she's so happy when I owled her that I'm now in Ravenclaw…" 

"Of course, Hermione, you don't have to justify yourselves. And it's not like I would be all by myself", a nervous glance around, "Sirius will visit me after all. I talked with Professor Lupin after the last lesson and he said if he can't stay in my dorm he'll let him stay in his chambers. But I don't think the Slyths make too much of a fuss, only the Quidditch team stays in the dungeons and when no one impressible is around they're all right." 

"Hopefully Sirius sees that too." 

A smart smile appeared on Harry's face, "oh, don't worry about *that*, as long as he's in dog form he can hardly complain, now can he…?" 

"Wicked!" 

"Yes, that's me, the wicked Harry Potter", laughed Harry. "Now have fun you two, I'll owl you your presents and keep you up-to-date." 

Hermione gave Harry a bone-crushing hug. "See you in January, Harry, enjoy your time with Sirius and don't forget to study, OWLs are soon." Smiling she climbed into the carriage. 

"Have fun and forget the study advise as soon as possible, nobody but Herm wants to study over the Christmas holidays." 

"You too, Ron, greet Ginny, Fred, George, your parents and everyone else from me, okay?" 

"Sure thing. Bye!" 

With a wistful expression on his face Harry watched the departure of the carriages. 

He didn't felt like going back inside yet, back into his luxuriously-impersonal dungeon dormitory. So Harry pulled the cloak a bit tighter around his body and just watched through the starting rain how the horseless carriages became smaller and smaller. 

Only when his friends and the carriages had long disappeared from view, his teeth had started chattering from cold, his fingers had long gone numb, his robes were soaked from the rain and dusk settled over Hogwarts Harry returned to the castle.   


Draco and Blaise had also friends to accompany to their carriage, but in the contrary to Harry it's a happy event for them. Not that they wouldn't miss Pansy, Vincent and Gregory, but parting their ways for the Christmas holidays was nothing unusual for them and they'd still people they cared for remaining at Hogwarts, people they could celebrate Christmas together with. 

Pansy tried to heave her muggle travelling bag into the carriage, but barely managed to raise it from the ground. "Urgh! That holdall would be too heavy even for a giant!" She tucked a loose strand of blonde curls back behind her ear and gazed critically at the holdall. Maybe Hannah had been right when she said she wouldn't be able to carry all that stuff by herself… But then again, it wasn't her job. "Be gentlemen, boys, and give a lady a hand here for a minute."   


Only the four boys together managed to heave the big holdall into the carriage, which immediately protested with creaking. 

"What did you put in there, Pansy? The whole Hufflepuff gold?" 

"As if I would ever do that! Oh really, Draco, I'm now a Hufflepuff myself and you're being very nasty, But seriously, I only put into that bag what I need on our trip." 

"And what is that exactly? For god's sake, Pansy, I bet not even Draco's mum has as many clothes as you put into that thing", Blaise said and rolled his eyes. 

Pansy chose to graciously ignore the last comment. "Draco, are you gonna make a move with Potter, now that he hasn't has the dream team always hanging on to him?" 

Five gazes turned to Draco and he couldn't help feeling like a pack of hyenas had picked him as prey. "Thank you very much for bringing that up again, Pans." 

"You're cute when you pout, Draco, but that snapping kinda ruins the effect. So you really plan to get into Potter's pants… Well, if it has to be him… it would've been worse if you'd a crush on McGonagall or", shudder, "Weasley!" 

"I thought Hufflepuffs weren't allowed to make snide remarks, Pansy." 

"Well, Vince, maybe being in Gryffindor you just missed when we changed our statute. Anyway, back to Potter! It's nice of you guys to try and save Draco from my clutches, but haven't you heard yet that muggle saying, "the female of the species is more deadly than the male"…?" 

"That's the only reason why we try to save him. We all want to tease Draco, but even for a Slytherin it would be just inhumane cruel to let you get him." 

Finally Draco felt it's necessary to join the verbal battle again. If he didn't, god knew what other tortures Pansy would think of. "Thanks, I feel so loved. Anyway, you better get onto the carriage now, it'll leave any moment now." 

Pansy's eyes widened in shock and she scrambled onto the carriage, quickly followed by Vincent and Gregory. "Bye Blaise. And Draco, don't get your hopes up, the final battle is only postponed, not cancelled!"   


The dark-haired boy was tired and freezing by the time he'd reached the trap door. "Phoebus." The entrance didn't opened. Okay, he just had to think and he'd remember the right one. He'd been told that they would change the password, now that they're all by themselves. And he'd also been told the new one. "Phoenix? P… path? Panther? Penny, pacifier … damn!" The boy only remembered that it'd been a word starting with p and was somehow related to Phoebus, because Blaise wanted Neville to be able to remember it as well. Okay, Phoebus was a Greek god. So Phoenix hadn't even been a bad guess… Couldn't harm to count some ancient creatures up. "Medusa, sphinx, pegasus?" 

The familiar grinding sound of the trap door was audible. 

He heaved a sigh in relief and climbed into the common room. Red-golden flames were dancing in the fireplace, Draco was reading a book in front of it in "his" armchair, a mild butterbeer standing next to him on a coffee-table, a few snakes appeared to be playing hide and seek, the smell of Christmas cookies the house elves baked for them made the dungeon room almost homey. 

Harry closed his eyes and allowed himself for a moment just to enjoy the warmth inside here, the familiar green-silver environment. In some strange way it's nice to be back here, and in a way that worried him even more than it made sense that he's starting to feel in this place at home. 

Draco looked up from his novel and directly at a soaking wet Harry Potter. Uh oh, that's so not good. He'd successfully avoided being alone with Harry since Saturday and he wanted to keep it that way. Well, maybe he'd still chase him away before it's too late… One eyebrow was raised inquiring, "Potter, would you kindly go and change into other clothes before you flood the whole dungeons?" 

Harry was hurt by the other boy's coldness. He didn't expected him to throw himself at him, but Draco could at least stop pretending that nothing ever happened between them. "Actually, that's exactly what I was planning, but nonetheless, Malfoy, thank you very much for your kind words and concern!" 

"You'll catch your death. What were you thinking anyway, staying out all day in the cold and rain?!", demanded Draco. Then he added quickly, "not that I care, of course." 

"Of course." The corners of Harry's mouth twitched. A silly grin wanted to plaster itself onto his face, but Harry wouldn't allow it. It would do him no good if Draco found out that his concern cheered him up. No good at all. So he went hurriedly to his dorm. 

And left a very confused Draco behind. "What the hell has just happened?!", he asked himself quietly, not really expecting an answer but still feeling the need to voice his question aloud.   


At dinner – a defrosted – Harry looked all the time expectantly around the Great Hall. 

"What is it, Harry? Your friends are all home, aren't they?", asked Blaise. 

This was as good a time as any… "Yes, well, I don't know how to ask this best… do you like animals?" Five nods. "Dogs?" 

Seamus bounced in his chair. "Oh Harry, you get a dog for Christmas?" 

"No, but Snuffles will visit again. Snuffles is a dog I take care of sometimes in my holidays and he'll visit. Do you mind terribly much if he stays with us? You see, he's homeless and the people who took care of him will move away and when Professor Lupin - who looks after him when he's not at Hogwarts – told them that he could come he didn't knew that you're all going to stay." 

"Neville and me don't mind. Do we, Nev?" 

"When I can share a dorm with snakes, a frog and once Ron's rat, then a dog won't kill me." 

Only Draco was seeing a big problem in sharing the dormitory with a dog. He liked them, but their dorm was small and Blaise's clothes took already enough space up… "Are we talking about a straying dog? With fleas, worms and louses?" 

"I'll clean him up. Please, Malfoy?" Harry tried the wide, begging eyes he'd seen Draco use so often and successfully on Snape. 

And like expected the blonde's resolution thawed like ice in the sunshine. He really didn't knew why he's suddenly so generous around Harry Potter – and he didn't wanted to know. "Fine, but if that dog ruins our carpets I'll make you pay." 

"Don't worry, Snuffles is an angel." 

Something, or rather someone, nudged Harry's leg. "Gah!" He recoiled instinctively, that toppled the chair over and the next thing Harry became aware of was that he's laying on the floor of the Great Hall next to a knocked over chair. "Damn you, Malfoy, I told you not to scare me like that!" 

A whine came from under the Slytherin table and Sirius looked apologetically at his godson. 

"Si… *Snuffles*! Gods, Snuffles, you gave me quite a scare." His anger already forgotten, Harry hugged the black dog. "Guys, I'll walk Snuffles, see you later." 

"Quite an angel…!" Draco turned his nose in disgust up. "And don't forget to give that thing a bath, it doesn't gets into my dorm before it's clean, god knows what diseases I'll catch!" Truth was, he's a bit jealous. Though Harry had no parents he still got to spend Christmas with visitors while his parents would make a vacation in Switzerland… 

Sirius growled and bared his teeth at Draco. 

The sneer turned quickly into a nervous smile. "Puppy?" Another growl. "Uh… Snuffles, I think you should really go with Potter now, maybe he'll even transfigure you dog biscuits." 

Blaise looked fearfully at the dog and took his wand out of his robe pocket as silently as possible. He wasn't totally sure how good dogs could hear, but he didn't wanted that monster to believe he's trying to hurt it. He fondled the ebony wand nervously, not knowing how to react to the dog, his parents never allowed him to get near one before. 

The animagus gave Harry a look that said clearly "you poor thing really have to live with them?". Then he resumed scaring Draco with fletching his teeth and growling. 

"Let's go!", decided Harry in a voice that tolerated no contradiction.   


They walked in silence to an abandoned classroom, Harry magically locked the door and cast a silencing spell on the room. 

"You can transform back now, we should be safe." 

"Harry, why didn't you told me that you made friends in Slytherin?", Sirius asked bluntly. 

The boy squirmed under the scrutinizing look uncomfortable. "Didn't Professor Lupin told you? About the resorting, I mean." 

"Resorting?" 

Now the green-eyed teen regretted that he didn't wore his school robes. The Slytherin scarf would've made the explanation so much easier. At least then his godfather would've figured out by himself that he's a Slytherin and he wouldn't see the look of disgust in his face… "Yes, there was a resorting last week Monday. And I… I kinda… got into Slytherin. The Sorting Hat already wanted to put me there the first time but back then I managed to persuade it into putting me into Gryffindor, now it didn't. I didn't wanted to, but it wasn't my choice and I wished I wouldn't disappoint you so much but…" 

"Harry." 

"…I couldn't help it. I really didn't wanted to and I was very unhappy and…" 

"*Harry*! Listen to me before you suffocate, will you? As long as you're happy I don't care." 

The Slytherin looked at his godfather as if he'd grown a second head, "why aren't you angry?" 

"Moony has told me already about the resorting. But I wanted to hear the story from yourself. Frankly, I was quite angry at first, but he made me realize that you're still my godson, that you didn't changed at all. You merely wear a different scarf now." Sirius didn't looked very convinced himself. But what could he do? Harry was suffering enough already with housemates like Draco Malfoy… "Only one thing, how does Snape treats you?" 

"Oh, pretty well, actually. He just ignores my existence except to give me detentions and for me that's just fine." 

"Why don't you tell me now how you are? There has to have happened a lot in the last months when you got into Slytherin. And how are they treating you?" 

"That depends. Many Gryffindors were sorted into Slytherin, alone Neville and Seamus from my year, Herm is in Ravenclaw, so I'm not all by myself. Her and Ron went home, I could've gone along to the Weasleys but we've to train for our match against Ravenclaw." 

"The one you wrote me about, right?" 

"Yes. Will you watch?" 

"If I have managed not to kill the Malfoy brat first…" 

Harry laughed and gave his godfather another hug, "I missed you a lot, Sirius." 

"I missed you too. And I was very worried for you. These Slytherins are for sure all Death Eaters and you have to sleep every night in the same room as them…" 

The green-eyed teenager yearned to confess to him that he's really sometimes afraid of this, if he'd told Ron he'd only have tried to beat Draco up and Hermione was always busy with her new Ravenclaw friends. But Sirius would worry then even more. So Harry forced himself to shrug nonchalant and smirk evilly at the older man, "hey, I'm a Slytherin just like them, I think I'm really capable of handling Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini when even Voldemort is scared of me…!"   


Blaise let his gaze wander lazily through the common room. 

This was only the first day of their Christmas holidays and he's already bored to tears! Of course he could've started on his homework, all teachers had made sure that they wouldn't have any time to get used to laziness, or the extra assignments his parents had given him, but that would've been just too drastic a measure. 

Not even the brand-new edition of the "Encyclopaedia of Dark Herbs" or any other of his magical books could keep his interest any longer than half a hour. So he busied himself with snooping around, together with annoying Draco his favourite pastime occupation. 

"Oh lucky day, looks like I get two in one tonight!" A cheshire-cat grin on his face he hurried over to Draco before his best friend could escape his clutches. "Hullo Drakey", he greeted cheerfully and plopped down next to his blonde housemate on a black leather couch. 

Draco didn't even deigned to look up from his intensive study of the fire and ordered tonelessly, "buzz off." 

"Oh, are we maybe a bit touchy today? Oh tell me, Draco, I'm your best friend and there's no one else here you can pour your heart out to, so tell me already, I'm dying from curiosity!" Blaise was practically bouncing with excitement. 

"Blaise, just leave before I make you my guinea pig for Cruciatus." 

"So something is really up!" 

"I didn't…" 

"You wouldn't get such aggressive if there was no reason. You're rough to other people, but never to your friends. Unless you have a really big secret you're afraid we could find out if you don't scare us away. But unfortunately, my dear Draco, I'm like a bloodhound when I've caught the trail of a secret or rumour. I want to know everything, I won't leave you alone before I get what I want and you know it." 

"I know you for five years, how could I not have noticed it…?!", snapped Draco. But inside he'd already resigned. Blaise was right, he truly gave never up, unlike Pansy who you could scare away with a few effectively used hexes. The dark-haired boy next to him was above such childish games, if you hexed him he retaliated with a much worse spell, which could quite be one of the unforgivable curses… No, he really didn't wanted Blaise to use *again* Imperius on him and make him do something awfully embarrassing under it's influence. Between clenched teeth he ground out, "look, everything's peachy, I only want to be left in peace for some time and now *leave*." 

Blaise fixed a serious, solemn look on the blonde. "This may be hard for you to accept, but I only want to help, Draco." 

"You can't help. There is nothing that can help me." 

"It's again about Potter, isn't it?" Silence. No answer was an answer too… "For god's sake, Draco, make your mind up and then stick to it! You can't continue like this, you'll ruin yourself. Either you go to him and tell him how you feel or you do everything to get over him, but make a decision." 

But Draco didn't wavered. "There is no decision I have to make because I have *no* crush on Potter." 

"I never claimed that it's a crush, stop assuming stuff. It can be just as well that you're falling for him or he's the love of your life", the Slytherin stated matter-of-factly. 

A warning, barely controlled growl. "*Blaise*!" 

Said boy saw Neville entering the common room and stood smoothly up. "Well, if you don't want my help, then I guess it's your business. See you later, Draco. Nev, wait for me!" 

Draco breathed a sigh of relief as soon as Blaise's attention was diverted from him. Dangerous his friend's attention was. As much as he appreciated the other boy's concern, he just didn't knew the limits. Or rather, he saw them and didn't cared. It's something Draco couldn't understand. Blaise was going to become a Death Eater very soon and still he didn't cared that he brought himself into danger, he even befriended Harry Potter – and told his future lord's archenemy about his career wish. 

Now Blaise was distracted, but that didn't helped him very much with the problem at hand. Because his best friend had been more right than he thought… 

It's wrong, so terribly wrong. The only feelings he's supposed to have for Harry Potter were hate, contempt and anger. But unfortunately these weren't the only ones he felt. There was something admirable about him, he'd never met someone as strong as him, he'd soon be as good a Slytherin as the rest of them, but he wouldn't loose the goodness and light. With ease he managed to combine the pros of both worlds. But most of all he's just a person Draco enjoyed to have as company. He'd have with Harry as much fun as with his long-time friends. Worst was, though, that these feeling he could still handle and justify, he wouldn't loose his head for them. 

An affair like Blaise encouraged in the contrary would be the quickest way to commit suicide. 

Kissing him had only been a dare, a joke, and he had thought he'd have forgotten about it the next day. He hadn't expected it to feel right. Draco hadn't suddenly realized that he's in love with Harry, he hadn't realized that he didn't wanted to be a Death Eater anymore. Yet it'd felt right, like they're supposed to kiss. 

And that'd made a world of a difference. It triggered a chain reaction that started with him admitting at least to himself that maybe Harry wasn't evil incarnate and it ended… Draco was sure that he didn't really wanted to know where it ended.   


to be continued…   
  


Did I made Sirius too understanding? Dunno. 

Author's ramblings: I know I promised to write faster now and I'd planned at least a chapter each week, but I'm suffering from a bad luck streak. My computer crashed all the time, I'd been online too much so I had to economize for the rest of May, hay fever sucks and to top it off I got two weeks ago a really bad allergy. Now Conrad found a new way to annoy me – Word is so slow that loading a big file can take ten minutes, I've run scan disk, defrag, several anti virus software and erased so much already, but it just doesn't helps. And that exactly when loads of work and the World Cup keep me from writing! *glaresdaggersathercomp*   
On the bright side, my first Gundam Wing novel arrived last week and I realized that Treize looks much like my OC Antoine, just that he's platinum blonde short hair.   
Well, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and it doesn't reflects my bad mood too much.   
In case you wonder about dates often, under www.altenberg.de you find a very good program. It's in German, but really a great calendar, from 0100 to 9999. 

I'm desperately searching a beta reader for Silver Snake. If you would like to be my beta I'd be eternally grateful. Just write me to Artemis10002000@yahoo.de I check that address more often (though that's during the world championship every fortnight-month). 

I realize that if I continue with this speed I won't get all the story into fifteen chapters. So I have three solutions in mind and since the story is for you I'd like to read your opinion.   
1st I make Silver Snake longer.   
2nd I'll only focus on Harry and Draco, the story ends with them getting together for good (or not *eg*) and I leave the whole thing with reactions Lucius, battle with Voldemort and so on to your imagination.   
3rd They will have to struggle with these things, but in a sequel. (Which would take some time, though, with my story mess – I'm insomniac and every night I can't sleep I think of a new world or story). 

Next is the Christmas chapter. My calendar says too it's June, but it's so cold, rainy and dull outside I have already mused why in no store they have Halloween decorations *g*   



	8. A new perspective

Author: Artemis (artemis1000@gmx.net)   
Disclaimer: Harry Potter, plot and all her characters belong to JKR and her publishing companies, which's names I don't know. No copyright infringement intended. Don't bother suing, my "fortune" isn't worth the trouble. I only own the idea to this story.   
Timeline: In their fifth year, 1995/1996   
Rating: PG-13, a few harsh expletives   
Chapter: 8/15   
Pairings: Draco/Harry, a bit Blaise Zabini/Neville   
Summary: It's Christmas at Hogwarts Draco fights with books and Snuffles, Harry with his snakes and there will also be some of the kissing that you readers had to wait for so long. I can tell you, you're gonna love the second part of this chapter, finally a teeny-weeny bit of fluff!   
Author's notes: Now, this has taken me almost a year, guess that's a record. If it hadn't been for a dear reader who has motivated me to get me queen of laziness to get back to writing on Silver Snake, I probably wouldn't have had this finished for another month or two. What can I say? I'm very sorry that I had forgotten about this story, I had for some time lost interest in Harry Potter and also in this fandom, but I'll try to be a good little writer now (but I won't set myself anymore deadlines after I had promised myself to write a chapter a week and then forgot about it for a year).   
Author's notes 2: Now, I didn't got around yet to tying all loose ends up in this chapter and the responds to reviews will also be only in the second because I so badly want to keep the goal I set for myself, to finish this still in May, but I did got around to introducing Lily the snake to you. I'm also planning to start sometime soon… or maybe not, to write in British English which fits better in with Scottish Hogwarts. I learned that in school, then I forgot all about it when I only read/wrote American English over the internet and now I wish I wouldn't have so violently eradicated everything my old English teacher told me. Now I gotta stop, or my author's notes will end up longer than the story.   


**Silver Snake**   
**_By Artemis_**

Chapter eight: A new perspective – Christmas   


Balancing a stack of books in one hand, Draco opened the door with the other and made a belly-landing when he lost his balance tripping over the small step that served as their dorm threshold. 

This Tuesday was beyond doubt not his day. 

First he slept through their first training session of the day, which he himself had wanted to be at sunrise, then Blaise nagged him some more about Potter, dinner was horrible, next Potter decided they should lend some books about prefect work from the library, and left him to carry the books all by himself and by hand as he'd forgotten his wand, now he's measuring their dorm personally out... 

...and Snuffles was chewing on his robes! 

"Potter, keep your bloody dog from tearing my best dress robes into pieces!", he yelled. 

Draco had just successfully finished the search-and-rescue mission for his wand when Harry stepped out of the bathroom, toothbrush still in his hand. 

Immediately processing what's happening, he quickly drew his own wand and yelled, "expelliarmus! Just what do you think you're doing, Malfoy?!", demanded Harry angrily. 

"Do you have any idea how expensive these robes were?! I'm going to make you pay me new ones, Potter, just you wait!" 

"Gimme a break, will you! You're making a mountain out of a molehill here. I mean, you have so many robes that you won't even notice if there's one more or less. And if this robe was so important to you then you can just send an owl to Madam Malkin and you'll get an identical one in a couple of days." 

Draco glared at him. He didn't cared all that much about this robe, but he disliked it greatly when Potter's dog chewed on his robes and wonder boy didn't even bothered to apologize. Draco glanced at Seamus' muggle clock and found out that it's almost time to go and meet Blaise. Ignoring the fuming Harry completely, he fetched his broom and stalked out of the room. 

Harry was left to stare stupidly after the other Slytherin. "Well", he said finally to himself, "that was certainly odd." 

Sirius had watched the exchange with great interest. The look on the Malfoy boy's face had been worth every moment of the lecture Harry was sure to give him. And he just hadn't been able to help himself when he woke up from his nap and found the obscenely expensive robes laying on the bed without anyone around to stop him... 

"Now, Sirius, what were you thinking? God knows what spell Draco would have used on you if I hadn't stopped him in time and you would've been defenceless because if you'd defended yourself he would've known that you're an animagus and then it would have been at the most a matter of hours until the Ministry of Magic and the Death Eaters knew where you are! I don't want to see you endangering yourself like this again, do you hear me?!" 

The animagus nodded his head with what he hoped to be a guilty look and let his tail droop.   


Neville beamed at his boyfriend and hugged him enthusiastically. "Oh that's so sweet, Blaise, thank you very much indeed!" 

"You're welcome." The dark-haired Slytherin stroked a strand of hair out of his face and flashed Neville a wicked smirk. After all they're in public now and his hard-earned bad reputation couldn't be risked, now could it? He held his hand out to Neville and asked, "do you want to accompany me to the Quidditch pitch? I'm supposed to meet Draco there." Blaise smiled when Neville took his hand and fell in step with him. "Ask your grandmother quickly if you are allowed to spend Easter at my place. My parents don't mind me bringing friends along to spend the holidays with us, but they like to have a lot of time to adjust to changes in the routine." 

"Is it because…?", Neville trailed with a nervous glance around them off. Slytherins read openly Dark Arts books in the common room and talked about their Death Eater ambitions, provided they didn't believed it to be below them to kneel before a half-blood, but he'd never heard them mention it outside of the safety of the dungeons. 

"Yes, because of that, Neville. There have to be made certain changes in the arrangement of our home to accommodate guests." 

He nodded his understanding and they continued their walk through Hogwarts maze of corridors in comfortable silence. Neville still didn't knew why the Sorting Hat thought him to be Slytherin material, he thought that of the three new-Slytherins he fit the least, but he's very glad that the Sorting Hat made a mistake. If he hadn't been resorted into Slytherin he would've never gotten to know Blaise, never fallen in love with the would-be dark wizard. And he didn't even wanted to think about that, he'd become such an important part of his life. If Blaise only wouldn't be so determined to become the greatest dark wizard since Salazar Slytherin himself… 

"What are you thinking about? Is anything wrong?" 

"No, I was just wondering." 

"About what?" 

"Us. Our futures after Hogwarts. Why I was sorted into Slytherin." 

"Our relationship is working well and it will continue to, don't rack your brains about that. We'll see what becomes of our futures when the question is of interest. First we have to survive the last three years in Hogwarts, then we can worry about what professions we are going to learn and what that's going to do to us." 

"Yes, but I still don't understand how I of all people could end up in Slytherin." 

"I don't see why you make such a big deal about being sorted into Slytherin. All three of you adjusted easily. Neville, you really are a candidate for Slytherin, even if you don't believe it." 

Neville still didn't looked convinced. "But why me?" 

"You don't have the courage of a Gryffindor or the wisdom of a Ravenclaw, you are loyal like a Hufflepuff, but not diligent and fruity. Of bravery, wisdom, loyalty and ambition, ambition is the one you have the most. Not overly much, but you've still more ambition than bravery or wisdom. You have after all always tried to be good in Potions, though you knew perfectly well you'd never be good with it. You are a pureblood and your parents possessed powerful magic, that's always an advantage if you want to be sorted into Slytherin.. You will be a good Slytherin once our self-confidence and ambition rubs off on you, we can offer you the home Gryffindor couldn't offer you." 

Secretly, Neville hoped that Blaise was right and that the Slytherin traits would indeed rub off on him. It would be nice if he'd become strong and proud like the Slytherins, be able to defend himself. 

"Seamus has a wicked streak in him. He's cunning and has just enough of a troublemaker in him, he's even ambitious as long as it comes to pranks, though we do need to do something about his definite lack of ambition concerning good grades. We can't have Slytherins getting bad grades, Professor Snape would kill the whole lot of us. Seamus is a mere half-blood, but being half-blood isn't anymore an issue for many years because of our Lord." 

Neville winced a bit when Blaise called Voldemort so casually his master. He'd surely never get used to Blaise being a junior Death Eater. "Harry?" 

"Harry is constantly standing at a crossroad as parselmouth and Gryffindor heir, whether he'll become the next saviour of the wizard world or the next dark lord." Silently Blaise added he'd rather have Harry become the latter, he'd rather bow down before a decent person like him that the old loony Voldemort. He sighed. Well, you couldn't get everything, you could only try and hope for the best… 

"The Gryffindor traits have come easily to him, I don't know him well, but I daresay that some or most of it was even innate. What he lacks are Slytherin traits – regardless what road he'll take he's going to need them. He's the ambition and the ruthlessness as he proved already several times when battling our Lord. And he did tell us that the Sorting Hat already wanted to put him into Slytherin at the first sorting, back then he could sway it, but now he's put into the house he belongs to. Power needs Slytherin and Slytherin is drawn to power, it's fate for him." 

Blaise shrugged carelessly. "Or maybe the Sorting Hat just had a malicious day, it sorted many people strangely. I mean, Vincent and Gregory in Gryffindor? That's a good joke, but nothing more!"   


"Oh please come finally out from under there, Lily, can't we just handle this like sensible people and snakes?", Harry pleaded with his snake. She regularly hid under Harry's bed when they had to make the monthly check-up with Hagrid. 

"Never!" 

"Don't make me take drastic measures… You know that I could just levitate you out from down there, but I don't want to make you angry." 

"You wouldn't dare!", Lily hissed indignantly and pressed her curled up form tighter against the wall. 

"Come here, snakey, come to me", Harry cooed in human tongue and stretched one hand invitingly out. "Good snakey, you're a good snake, come here." 

Lily graced Harry only with a sceptical look before she resumed her nap. Her last thought before dozing off was that her master's mind must have cracked under all that pressure with the evil master with that weird name. 

With a sigh, Harry gave up and left his snake in peace. 

Then he'd just have to go now to Hagrid and tell him that he's going to come another time with Lily. Surely it would be easier to catch her if she believed that he'd given up on trying to take her to the gamekeeper. 

His Lily was quite a moody snake who didn't accepted it if things didn't went her way, but she's also very bright, kind and a good listener, so Harry was willing to put up with her stubbornness. 

Dumbledore had given the snake to Harry as a belated birthday present when he returned to school this September. He'd Hagrid secretly working on finding Harry a nice little snake for months already, but Harry got no warning. 

He only found out when Headmaster Dumbledore unceremoniously thrust the snake cage into his arms… 

Of course Harry hadn't been happy at first. He didn't wanted to talk to snakes and he didn't cared much about having the Slytherins animal for a pet either, but Dumbledore had insisted on him keeping Lily, because he thought that fluent parseltongue and experience with snakes would come in handy for the fight against Voldemort and that Harry needed some practice. 

And since this had been Dumbledore's order the other Gryffindors hadn't objected either, though they had been just as unhappy as Harry about sharing their dorm room with a snake… 

Lily shook Harry out of his reverie as he felt something cold slither up his bare arm underneath his robe sleeve. 

"What are you doing here, Lily, didn't you wanted to sleep?", Harry hissed gently, unable to hide his surprise. 

"You don't look happy, I came to find out what's wrong." 

"I was just thinking. About how I got you as my companion and how I thought that parseltongue might help against Voldemort and it didn't worked out that way. I'd been so optimistic that we could maybe give some Death Eaters snakes who would be spying for us…" 

A small snake-chuckle was the answer. "Silly! The Dark Lord knows that you are a parselmouth, of course he would warn his Death Eaters not to allow any new snakes in the room when they're talking business." 

"Yes, but…", Harry objected. 

But Lily was tired of her master's constant objections and simply slithered out of his robe, clearly signalling that their conversation was over. 

Then she made herself comfortable in Harry's opened trunk, going back to sleep. 

Only now did Harry recall what he'd been originally trying to do. 

Steeling himself for the bite he's likely to earn himself now, Harry determinedly went over to his trunk and scooped the snake up. 

Then he quickly put her down in the snake cage and sealed the same magically. "We're going to Hagrid and we're going to do it now, Lily!", he ordered in a stern voice, daring the snake to make his life difficult again. 

And so they left the dungeons, Lily hissing obscenities and baring her venom-dripping fangs menacingly and Harry thinking over what he planned to say to Hagrid.   


Hagrid was checking on a couple of eggs which he'd found in an abandoned nest in the Forbidden Forest. 

The animals were still living, he could sometimes hear noises coming from inside, but it's quite a pain to keep them warm, yet not too warm, without even knowing for sure to what race they were. 

When it knocked on the door he quickly put the blanket back over the box with eggs and hurried with a broad smile on his face over to the door. 

This could really be only one person… 

Potter stood there in his a silver-green robe with Slytherin scarf, snake cage in hand, and nursed his bottom lip nervously. "Hello Hagrid." 

"Harry! It's great to see you again! How are you doing?", Hagrid greeted him cheerfully. 

Immediately Harry looked a whole lot more at ease. He returned the smile still a bit hesitantly and said, "it's nice to see you, too. For under these circumstances I'm doing fine. But what about you?" 

"Oh, couldn't be better!" Immediately Hagrid started telling Harry how he'd found the eggs and which races he might be brooding here, in the meantime he's making a tea for both of them. 

"Are we going to see the little ones in Care for Magical Creatures once they've hatched?", Harry asked eagerly. 

"Maybe. That depends on how strong a bite they have. Wouldn't want a repeat of the incident with Buckbeak, now would we?" 

This made Harry feel immediately uncomfortable again. Draco Malfoy had almost gotten Buckbeak killed, the same Draco Malfoy with whom he'd become friends over the course of the last weeks and whom he'd kissed in the truth or dare game… "Yeah, we wouldn't", he murmured uneasily. 

"Slytherin becomes you well, Harry, you look healthier than last time I saw you", Hagrid said good-naturedly. He'd noticed Harry's uneasiness and wanted to show him that he didn't thought of him different, now that he's one of Salazar Slytherin's. 

Harry's head shot up in surprise. He blushed a bit and ducked his head again. 

"You're such a wimp, Harry!", Lily mocked. 

"Thank you, Hagrid. But it's not Slytherin that makes me feel so happy, it's because Snuffles is visiting over the Christmas holidays." 

They shared a conspiratorial smile. 

"Well then, why don't you drop in here sometime when you walk Snuffles?" 

"That's a good idea." 

"Heeellloooo? Anyone here still remembers the poor, poor snake kidnapped and dragged to this place of horrors? Let me out of this cage, master, I'm feeling claustrophobic!", Lily whined. 

Harry glared at the snake. "You've never before complained about claustrophobia and anyway…", he flashed Lily an evil smirk, "if you are indeed sick with claustrophobia, then we'll have to visit Hagrid and Madame Pomfrey more often, so you can receive proper treatment…" 

"Eep!" Lily took cover behind a miniature tree at the back of her magically enlarged snake cage. "Help, help, so help me someone!", Lily hissed as loud as she could. "I'm being tortured!" 

The dark-haired Slytherin buried his head in his hands. "Wonderful, now we're going to have dozens of snakes threatening me in a couple of minutes!", he murmured miserably. He'd become a skilled parselmouth thanks to Lily, but not even he would be able to convince so many snakes that he really didn't intended to do any harm to Lily… 

"Being troublesome, isn't she, heh?", Hagrid asked with a small smile as he joined Harry again with two cups of tea. 

"Troublesome doesn't even comes close to describing it…!" 

Hagrid watched Harry amusedly, how he conversed again with Lily in an appeasing tone, obviously trying to hiss some sense into her. 

He didn't had much hope that Harry would succeed. Lily was a very pretty animal, but Lily was also the most stubborn snake Hagrid had ever met… 

"Oh, please, Lily, can't you be for once sensible? I don't need even more snakes making me trouble, you know?", Harry said wearily. 

He took a deep breath to calm his frazzled nerves down and continued his attempts to get back on Lily's good side. "These other snakes you're right now calling will be thinking that I'm trying to kill you and they'll probably bite me. Do you want that to happen, Lily?" 

Lily's hisses became a bit less determined, but she didn't stopped, let alone retracted her cries for help. 

"Okay, Lily, I'll make you a deal. If you stop calling for help now and tell the other snakes that you aren't actually in danger, then I'll let you sleep in my bed tonight. You always want that, don't you, saying that it's so comfy and warm? You can sleep with me and you won't have to go back to your cage if you don't want to until the next appointment with Hagrid. And of course I also won't take you to Madame Pomfrey or a psychiatrist, because I know very well that you're not claustrophobic."   


After Harry had brought Lily back to the dorm and promised to buy a treat for her, he took Sirius for a walk to Hogsmeade. 

Or so he said, at least. 

In truth, Harry planned to floo from Hogsmeade to Diagon Alley because he urgently needed to buy Christmas presents, with Christmas Day being only five days away.. 

Harry had gotten the presents for Ron and Hermione already when he went during the summer holidays to Diagon Alley for his school supplies, in a second-hand bookstore in Knockturm Alley he found a very old book about the history of Dark magic that he knew Hermione would love and he ordered nice leather Quidditch gloves for Ron because he's confident that Ron would get onto the Quidditch team this year, he figured that he could get presents for his other roommates in Hogsmeade. 

But of course he couldn't possibly guess that he'd need presents for Slytherins… 

Which meant another visit to Knockturm Alley, where he would hopefully find presents that would satisfy his rich new friends as well as Sirius.   


One day blurred into another. 

Draco had his Quidditch players practice each day either from sunrise at half past seven on or from sunset at half past four on, but always for at least eight hours. He insisted on practicing by darkness because he feared their game could last well into the night, and then these hours of flying by darkness would give the Slytherins a great tactical advantage. 

The rest of their time the boys spent with visits to Hogsmeade, which Dumbledore had permitted, and visits to Diagon Alley, which Dumbledore didn't knew about. 

To the regret of Harry, Neville and Seamus, Draco and Blaise found it most enjoyable to drag the former Gryffindors to Knockturm Alley and give them a scare with the various Dark Arts items you could find there, while they all had a good time hanging around the Quidditch store and picking new toys for their pets. 

If they're too exhausted from practice to go either to Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley, the Quidditch players entertained themselves playing games, writing owls with family and friends, guessing what their Christmas presents would be and playing pranks on the students from other Houses who'd been stupid enough to stay, for which the ideas were mostly provided by Sirius 

And to Harry's surprise, he found himself enjoying himself. Christmas holidays had often been sad for him when he saw his housemates leaving for a happy Christmas feast with their families and knew that he'd never be able to celebrate Christmas with his parents and possible siblings he might have had. 

But this time it's fun, mostly because here he didn't felt like the one freak who didn't had a family to return to, but this time he felt privileged because of Sirius' visit. He could've been spending the holidays with the Weasleys as his friends could have with their parents, but they shared the goal, the ambition, to win the Quidditch match against Ravenclaw. And as good Slytherins, they'd use any means to achieve their ends, just like the Sorting Hat had sung during their sorting ceremony. 

And there were even moments when Harry felt as if he had already found a family in Slytherin House. There were times, when the boys huddled together in a corner of the common room with hot chocolate and a pile of sweets from Honeydukes, telling each other funny or scary stories, that Harry experienced a homelike, cosy feeling.   


On Sunday morning, Christmas Eve, loud, excited squeals woke the students and the animagus up. 

Disgruntled, Draco opened the curtains around his bed and let his gaze wander through the room to find out who he had to curse senseless. 

What he found was Seamus, who's balancing on a chair and staring out of the tiny dungeon window, all the time bouncing and squealing excitedly. 

"You're a *dead man*, Finnigan!", Draco hissed venomously and fished with one hand around his nightstand for his wand. He's intent on casting Crucio on the damned git for that. 

The snakes hissed as well, baring their fangs, for they weren't any more happy about the interruption of their beauty sleep than Draco was, and immediately complained theatrically to Harry. 

Seamus looked around and gave an awkward smile. No, he'd no doubt that Draco might just kill him and the very idea of having just angered a bunch of Dark wizards and poisonous snakes made him very, very uneasy. "Sorry?", he asked weakly. 

Harry was just as annoyed with Seamus as his roommates, but he didn't wanted Christmas to start with violence. So he asked in a friendly voice, "what's up, Seamus? Something exciting happening out there?" 

"It's snowing!", Seamus exclaimed happily. 

Blaise quickly crawled out of his bed and hurried over to Seamus. "Really, it is? Let me see it!" The moment that Seamus had obediently stepped down from the chair, he took his place and peeked through the small window. 

You couldn't see much from that tiny window, but Blaise could see enough to learn that it's indeed snowing. 

"Let's go and have a snowball fight!", Seamus suggested. 

Draco closed the curtains around his bed, told the others to do whatever they wanted as long as they're quiet, and tried to get back to sleep. 

Harry yawned. "Maybe later? It's just nine and I would like to sleep another hour or two, I'm tired. Someone here", he threw a pointed glare at Draco's bed, "had us have Quidditch training until after midnight." 

From behind the closed curtains of Draco's four-poster bed came a muffled protest that Draco only had to practice deep into the night because the idiots were so miserable Quidditch players, which brought a smile to the faces of all his roommates. 

"Good to know that the lack of sleep hasn't changed Draco's personality", Harry quipped. 

Blaise smirked wickedly. "Well, if you all value your sleep so much, then I'll just go and take a walk through the snow with Seamus and you can join us later." He's sure that this would cause at the very least Neville to give up his resistance and come along. 

What Blaise didn't knew, was that Neville and Harry had already followed Draco back into sleep. 

The Slytherin gave a pretty pout and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Well, looks like no one cares", he snapped. 

Seamus shrugged carelessly. "Doesn't has to keep us from enjoying the snow, though. We can just dress quickly, fetch a few sandwiches in the Great Hall and then go to the lake. Maybe it's frozen already. Then we could later go and skate on it."   


"Draco, give that back to me, you idiot!", Harry yelled through the whole Great Hall. 

When the owls arrived, Draco had snatched Harry's mail away from him with an evil cackle and fled to the table farthest away, which happened to be the Gryffindor table. 

"Or I'm gonna make you give it back!", Harry added as an afterthought, when he realized that his first yelling probably hadn't been sufficiently menacing. 

"Oh, having naughty dreams about me, Harry?", Draco cooed. Since they had slept for so long, they're alone in the Great Hall and the voices carried in the empty room. 

"I'll try that curse on you that Blaise has been raving about!" 

"You'll have to get me first!", Draco smugly pointed out. 

Harry would've best liked to bang Draco's head into the Gryffindor table. "You're so infuriating!" 

"And proud of it!" 

Neville was at that point snorting with laughter and Sirius regretted earnestly that he's in dog form because he also felt like laughing. 

But Harry had become a cunning Slytherin, too, and he certainly wouldn't let Draco get the better of him. Oh no, he knew the Malfoy heir and he also knew what would make Draco the most angry… "Fine, keep it if you like!", Harry said with a wicked smirk. 

Draco leaned back and sulked. 

Feeling very smug with himself, Harry sauntered lazily over to the Gryffindor table to snatch his mail from Draco's plate. 

Harry suddenly found himself noticing that Draco looked cute when he's sulking. 

He resolutely banned that unwelcome thought into the very back of his conscious mind and warned his mind to mention that ever again. 

Of course that didn't worked out as he'd planned. 

As Draco noticed that Harry's eyes had lingered on him just a tad longer than it's normal, he came to the conclusion that the best way to pay Harry back for ruining his game was to start a new game, one which Harry wouldn't be able to shrug off so easily. 

A pale hand shot out and fastened itself around Harry's wrist just as he's about to draw back from picking the mail up. "Leaving so soon again?", he purred as a seductive grin was forming on his lips. 

Draco caught Harry's gaze and held it, even as he slowly drew Harry closer. He's determined to kiss him and walk away, leaving the Boy Who Lived alone with his confusion. 

Nothing more than an inch separated their faces when Harry's mind registered with a jolt what was happening. 

He tore himself away from that mesmerizing silver gaze and a moment later also from Draco's grip. With a muttered, "don't make jokes like this", he virtually fled out of the Great Hall. 

Fortunately, Harry was already wearing his thick winter robes and a coat because they'd been planning to join Blaise and Seamus directly after breakfast, so nothing could hold him back from taking a walk in the chilling winter air that would hopefully clean his mind. 

Three pairs of eyes followed Harry as he hurried out of the Great Hall. 

Neville's gaze mirrored his confusion, for he wasn't sure whether Draco had been actually flirting with Harry or just teasing him, he'd have to ask Blaise, he knew Draco so much better than Neville did. 

Draco's eyes mirrored at the same time the confusion and the annoyance he's feeling. Confusion, because these few moments when Harry was close had left him dizzy and with a funny feeling in his stomach, annoyance because Harry had just ruined his mind games twice in a row. 

But the most intense gaze that followed Harry's every movement was that of Sirius, who's large brown dog eyes had a thoughtful, contemplating look to them. 

Sirius felt the urge to follow Harry and talk to him, and he'd been so close to running after him. But he vividly remembered how he'd felt when he's himself a teenager, how much he hated it when other people asked an explanation from him even though he didn't had one himself. 

No, Harry would be better off dealing with this on his own.   


A thousand thoughts were running through Harry's head as he's padding through the fresh snow. 

He didn't knew where he was going or why, only that he needed to get away from the confining castle for a while and sort his thoughts out before he would have to face Draco again. 

Of course, it wouldn't be the most drastic thing happening between them, he'd already shared a passionate kiss with Draco during the game of truth or dare, but back then he'd been sure that it's only a game. 

He had enjoyed it more than, say, Neville would've kissing Snape, but the rules had been clearly defined back then. 

It'd been only a game. 

Though things got out of hand afterwards and Harry doubted for a while his true feelings for Draco, he still could find comfort in the knowledge that the kiss had only been part of a game. 

But this, this was so completely different. 

Draco had actually tried to kiss Harry. 

Surely Draco had done it only because he wanted to pay Harry back because Harry had ended his fun with the mail, but already then Draco had been flirting with him. 

And even though Harry had little doubt that it had been only yet another game for Draco, it still made him think. 

Why would Draco tease him now by means of trying to kiss him when before he'd teased him by throwing dungbombs at him, making his cauldron explode or maybe getting him in trouble with the teachers? 

Draco had never before wanted to kiss him for mocking him, before he'd never taken such a thing into consideration. 

So that kiss during the truth or dare game must have changed something for Draco as much as it had for Harry. 

But what did that meant? 

Would Draco try to kiss him again? 

Would he then be serious about kissing him or would it be only a game? 

And how the heck was Harry supposed to differ the one from the other? 

The idea that there might very soon be a time when Harry wouldn't be able to get a grip on himself in time and he would actually let Draco kiss him worried him greatly. 

Because if Draco was then again only playing with him, he'd be the greatest joke of the whole school. 

Harry was afraid he would lose Ron and Hermione because of one weak moment, without even gaining anything for it. He would kiss Draco, Draco wouldn't be serious and he would lose his friends because they wouldn't be able to understand why Harry had done it, because they would maybe think that Harry had forgotten everything about the long friendship they'd shared and about how Draco Malfoy had always tormented the three of them. 

It'd been so close today. 

If it'd been just a moment later that he realized that he's about to kiss Draco Malfoy, then it would've been too late, he wouldn't have been able to help himself and then… 

The dark-haired boy was finally growing tired of the conversation he's having with himself. 

Actually looking at his surroundings for the first time since he'd left Hogwarts, Harry realized that he'd reached the edge of the lake. 

Remembering that Seamus and Blaise had left them a note that they would meet the rest of them later at the lake for a snowball fight, Harry decided to search for his friends. 

Of course, he'd have to face Draco Malfoy there, but if he made an effort to avoid the boy Draco would only be more smug, he would know that he'd affected Harry more than Harry could ever want. 

So he didn't had any other choice but to consider this incident in the Great Hall a game and go on with his life pretending that it didn't made any difference for him.   


By the time Harry had found his friends, all twelve Slytherins staying at Hogwarts had gathered for the snowball fight. 

Apart from the Quidditch team, there were some muggle-born and half-blood Slytherins who'd stayed because their parents didn't had the money to pay the travel costs for them. 

The parents from mainland Europe muggle-borns didn't had much of a choice but to have their children travel the long way to Hogwarts if they wanted for them to attend a wizarding school so renowned that they wouldn't have troubles later getting a job in the wizarding world, with Beauxbatons accepting only students speaking fluidly French and Durmstrang only purebloods. 

"Hello", Harry greeted meekly. 

"Harry, will you play snowball fight with us?", a tiny first year asked. 

The green-eyed Slytherin pretended to ponder the offer, while gathering unnoticed by the girl some snow from a tree. With the speed of a Seeker, he quickly threw the snow at her, saying at the same time, "I will!" 

The girl giggled with joy. 

Suddenly, a snowball hit Harry in the back. 

He whirled around to glare at whoever had thrown the snowball at him and calculate in his head whether it would be worth a try to retaliate, but nobody stood behind him. 

"You know, you're an awfully easy target, Harry", Blaise commented from where he's lazily leaning against a tree. 

Within minutes, Harry had forgotten about the almost-kiss with Draco.   


Unbeknownst to the Slytherins, three people were watching them. 

Albus Dumbledore chuckled in delight. "Isn't it wonderful, to see them so happy and playful?", he asked and gave a melancholic sigh as he remembered his own teenage years. 

"I still can't see why Mister Potter was sorted into Slytherin", McGonagall complained in a voice that would have been considered whining if someone else had been using it than the stern Transfiguration teacher. 

"You'll see, Minerva, you'll see… there is a good reason for everything that happens in the world and I have no doubt that much good will come out of young Harry's resorting", Albus said mysteriously. 

Snape snorted at this. "But certainly no good for our chances to win the House Cup." 

"Don't judge so quickly, Severus, I think very soon you wouldn't want to miss Harry anymore." 

While the Potions Master doubted this greatly, he didn't wanted to be rude and tell his superior frankly what he's really thinking. Which was, that Harry Potter would be invaluable for House Slytherin the very same day that there was a Gryffindor year which wasn't a bunch of obnoxious troublemakers and an insult for Hogwarts. 

At the same time Snape was trying to think of more things that were as improbable as Potter doing Slytherin more good than harm, dozens of possibilities were running through Albus Dumbledore's mind 

He'd known that the Slytherins weren't cold when they're alone and Harry had confirmed that during their talk when Dumbledore made him Slytherin prefect and Harry had raved about how many friends he'd already made in Slytherin and how much fun he'd there. 

But since Tom Riddle had become the most feared man for centuries, Dumbledore had to watch helplessly how the Slytherins isolated themselves the more the other Houses prejudices increased. 

That's why he'd pushed the resorting through, now that Voldemort was back in power they needed the Slytherins to open up again if they didn't wanted to lose them to Voldemort. And the only way to make other Houses mingle again with the Slytherins was to force them, hence the resorting. 

But Dumbledore had known that different colours on the scarves wouldn't make much of a difference, only if the new Slytherins had a good influence on their housemates and the former Slytherins were changed by their new Houses would the resorting cause a decline in the number of new Death Eaters. 

It were events like this carefree snowball fight taking place now that gave him hope.   


Talking amiably, a bunch of soaking wet, yet happy, Slytherins rushed through the doors of Hogwarts. 

Seamus and Blaise were feeling quite smug and satisfied with themselves. 

In the loud buzz of voices you could now and then make excited voices out that they hadn't had that much fun in years or that Slytherin should make from now on a snowball fight every winter holiday, if they could maybe repeat that tomorrow. 

Harry was feeling just as happy, but for different reasons. 

He's happy for the simple reason that the snowball fight distracted him for a while from worried thoughts about Draco. 

If only he'd have known how soon that would change again…   


In the time the Slytherins had been having a snowball fight, Dumbledore had the house elves prepare a surprise for this house of outcasts as a silent thanks for accepting their new housemates so effortlessly. 

A Christmas tree decorated with green and silver ornaments stood in the common room, mistletoes had been placed over all the doors. 

An even greater surprise for the Slytherins was a dining table in the middle of the common room, which's already laid with a green tablecloth and silvery china, the lunch that'd been brought for them consisted mostly of sweet breads, puddings, fruits, cakes and of course much hot chocolate to warm them up. 

"Wow!", Harry exclaimed in awe. 

The other fifth years were just as surprised and overwhelmed. 

"Snape has really outdone himself", Draco commented. He's the only of his year who could still form coherent sentences, since he knew overwhelming Christmas decoration from Malfoy Manor. His mother had a tendency to exaggerate and after she'd managed one year to cram the whole giant manor full with Christmas decoration it's hard to render him speechless. 

While everyone else was inspecting the common room and some girl yelled that the dorms had been decorated as well, Harry's gaze lingered on a scroll laying on the table. 

Intrigued, Harry went over to the table and unravelled the scroll. 

"This isn't from Snape!", he yelled. "It's from Dumbledore!" 

Everyone gasped. 

"You must be misunderstanding something, Harry, that's impossible! Dumbledore has never done us the tiniest favour and he hates us!", Draco exclaimed, saying aloud what everyone was thinking. 

"Well, obviously he doesn't today", Harry said with a small shrug of his shoulders. "This was all organized by him."   


What followed was a continuation of the careless, cheerful atmosphere of the snowball fight. 

Now that they're eating away from the prying eyes of the other Houses, they finally had the chance to enjoy a meal without having to pretend that they didn't noticed the hateful glares and the gossip aimed at them. 

But for Harry and Draco, this also meant more teasing by the snoopy Slytherins Blaise and Seamus. 

A big, evil grin on his face, Blaise leant over the table and looked scrutinizing at Draco and Harry, who're sitting next to each other and tried to be as inconspicuous as possible about avoiding each other, which made their avoidance even more suspicious for the young man. "Say, Drake, Harry, a little birdie has been telling me that the two of you had quite the interesting breakfast", Blaise cooed. 

Harry had to stifle the urge to groan. 

Or bang his head against the table. 

"Oh so, and this bird doesn't happens to be Longbottom?", Draco shot back and aimed a vicious glare at Neville. 

If looks could kill, Neville would've been dead ten times over by now. So it's understandable that the chubby boy made himself as small and unnoticeable as possible. 

"What's up, you old tattletale?! Not in the mood to talk?", he said with a sneer and gave Blaise a disgusted look.. 

Harry was very familiar with that glint in Draco's eyes from four and a half years of being his enemy. And he knew what it meant. 

That he was so close to cursing his best friend into oblivion, preferably with a nice little Avada Kedavra. 

"Draco, it might make Blaise even more suspicious if you curse him", Harry hissed and kicked him in the shin as an additional warning. 

"Ow!" Draco turned to Harry and scowled at him. "What did I do to warrant that?" 

Emerald eyes widened innocently. "What? I didn't do anything." 

Blaise chuckled. "That doesn't works with Draco, Harry, he's himself the master of looking like personified innocence." But then that vulture-like look was back in his eyes. "Now, what have you two been whispering about?" 

"Nothing", both boys chorused and tried to look innocent and clueless what Blaise was talking about in the first place. 

"You can't fool me, pals, just tell me. Were you two whispering about how you can best distract me? Or agree on a lie? Because I *know* there has been something going on in the Great Hall and I know also exactly what happened. I just want to get an explanation out of you because it's so much fun to see you squirm." 

"Shut up and eat, Blaise!", Draco told his friend in a threatening tone of voice. He didn't believed that would work with Blaise, it never did, but at least then he could always comfort himself that he'd tried everything he could… 

Surprisingly, Blaise indeed returned to eating and didn't uttered a word again about their "incident" during whole lunch.   


After lunch, of course… 

Draco and Harry tried to flee after lunch directly to the dorm, hoping that Blaise would rather make out with Neville than to continue harassing them. 

But as they walked at the same time out of the common room and underneath an archway, Blaise squealed in delight. 

"Stop, stop, you two! I think you've forgotten something!" 

"God, will he never give it a rest?", Harry groaned. 

"What is it now, Blaise? I don't know about you, but I for my part would like to take a nap before Quidditch practice, seeing as you and Seamus woke us up in the middle of the night." 

Harry knew that whatever Blaise planned wouldn't be pleasant when a malicious, smug smirk spread over the brown-haired Slytherin's face. 

"You know, I have this aunt in the United States and she has told me once about a very interesting custom the muggles there have… when two people meet under a branch of mistletoe, then those two people have to kiss." 

Both Harry and Draco groaned. 

"Well, kiss already!", Blaise edged them impatiently on. 

Harry blushed. It wasn't that Draco wasn't a very attractive boy and that he hadn't enjoyed that kiss he'd shared with Draco during the truth or dare game. But he also didn't wanted to kiss him when there were so many probing eyes on him, he didn't wanted to kiss him in the common room when that would mean they're going to be the hottest gossip tomorrow, maybe already for dinner. 

Draco on the other hand, was having more practical thoughts. 

It would probably be the easiest way to get rid of Blaise and his constant insinuations about Harry for the rest of the Christmas holidays if he would just kiss Harry Potter. Then they would all have a more enjoyable time and until Blaise would start again with the nonsense, until then he'd have thought of another way to keep his best friend from talking Draco senseless. 

Or that was at least what he's telling himself, the reasons with which he excused the temptation he's experiencing to just kiss Harry and give a damn about what the other Slytherins were thinking. 

"Come here, Potter, let's get over with this so we can get to bed." 

The dark-haired boy nervously wetted his lips as he stepped closer to Draco, so close that their chests were pressed against another and so close that he could feel Draco's hot breath. 

Unceremoniously, Draco wrapped his arms around Harry to make sure he wouldn't chicken out and pressed his lips firmly against Harry's, then he slipped his tongue into Harry's mouth, which he'd opened in surprise, and lost himself completely in the kiss. 

Blaise looked very satisfied with himself and let his eyes flicker always from the clock to the kissing boys. 

He needed to know just how many seconds they'd kissed so he could later bug Draco about it… 

After a long, gentle kiss they took both a step back and Harry's eyes were immediately transfixed on the stone step he's standing on. 

He still couldn't believe that Draco had done that, Harry had been thinking that Draco was only joking when he asked Harry to step closer, but he should've known better, he'd learned that Draco wasn't one to joke about such things. 

With every passing second Harry looked more distraught as a thousand insults his Slytherin housemates might throw at him ran through his head at lightning speed. 

Draco for that matter appeared completely calm and unfazed. 

He sneered at Blaise and asked mockingly, "well, have had enough of a show, Blaise?" 

Said boy was sulking. 

He'd been so sure that Draco would lose his cool composure when Blaise forced him to kiss Harry again and after hearing from Neville about that scene during breakfast he hadn't had any doubt that his friends only needed one more little nudge to become a couple. 

And yet his plan had barely avoided being a complete disaster. 

"You two should go to bed now", he finally ground out. Maybe Harry and Draco would kiss again if they believed no one is looking… 

"Thank you so much, mummy Blaise", Draco said sarcastically before he turned around on his heel and stalked to his dorm. 

Both Harry and Draco decided in that moment that it would be best if they pretended that this kiss had never happened. 

They would act amiably again during dinner and Quidditch practice, tomorrow they'd act like the friends and housemates they're expected to and they would just have to stifle whatever emotional turmoil this kiss had caused, and if they did that only for the sake of keeping their Slytherin housemates from finding out just how much this kiss had indeed affected both boys.   


Finally the morning of the 25th had come. 

Christmas Day. 

The boys slept until ten o'clock, when Harry was woken up from Lily. 

She'd relentlessly slithered over his chest and his face, hissed into his ear, until Harry was finally pulled out of sleep and the nice dream he'd been having in which he'd been kissing Draco again. 

He opened one eye to glare at the snake. Harry could've sworn that there was a smug smirk on Lily's snake face. "What the bloody hell do you want from me in the middle of the night?!", he asked harshly. 

Lily only gave a snake-laugh. "It's not in the middle of the night, silly master. It's daylight." 

"And how would you know?" 

"The window was tilted, I went to meet my friends." 

Harry hadn't even known that Lily had friends among other snakes than those who belonged to his roommates and would later have to tell his snake off for sneaking away without telling him anything, he would've been worried sick if he'd been awake to notice her absence. But right now, Harry was way too excited about Christmas and the presents that meant for him to care. 

He gave Lily a fond smile and caressed her head. "Lemme guess… you're hungry?" 

"You know me well, master." 

The dark-haired boy sat up in bed and opened the curtains just enough to fetch his wand and three blank pieces of parchment from the nightstand. Having thrown the parchments on the floor close to the wall, he knew better than to risk getting into the way of Lily and her breakfast, he transfigured them into dead mice. "Have fun, Lily." 

Feeling energetic despite that Draco had again insisted on practice until midnight, Harry blindly grabbed clothes out of his wardrobe, while yelling at his roommates to wake up, and hurried into the bathroom. 

Despite that Harry wanted very badly to unwrap his presents, the urge to look presentable when he faced Draco the next time was stronger. He didn't wanted to be all messy and sleepy in front of the boy who made sure that he looked always spick and span.   


In record time, the boys had again gathered in their dorm room. 

"So… who wants to unpack first?", Harry asked. Of course he wanted to be present when his roommates unpacked his presents, he badly wanted to know if Draco got a Firebolt from his parents, now that Harry couldn't anymore beat him in Quidditch, and if Blaise got the "Mammoth Book of 1001 Dark Curses for Every Occasion" that he drove his roommates crazy raving about it. 

Harry was very interested if Blaise got that book because then Harry would also lend it sometime, when Draco got difficult or Snape made his life living hell again. 

"I will!", Draco finally volunteered when he saw that no one else would. 

All boys immediately gathered around the heap at Draco's bed, Draco had to elbow his way past them to reach his presents. 

The first present he opened was one very long, suspiciously in the shape of a broom. 

And as Draco ripped the wrapping paper off, a magical one with moving Christmas trees and twinkling stars, there was indeed a broom inside. 

A Firebolt with a letter attached to the wooden handle. 

"Read it, read the letter!", Blaise urged, his hands moving restlessly as if he'd a mind to rip the letter out of Draco's hands in his curiosity. 

"Chill, Blaise, at this rate you'll have a heart attack before we get to your own presents!", Draco said with a sneer. 

Dear Draco, 

Your mother and me wish you Merry Christmas. 

Seeing as young Mister Zabini will surely get to read this letter again before you do, we decided to send you an extra owl with our actual letter to you. 

Draco, this is your mummy. Please try not to kill Blaise, okay? He's a sweet boy, he can't help being such a snoop. 

Mum   
Lucius 

Harry snorted with laughter as he read the letter. "Well, Blaise, looks like you got yourself already a reputation…" 

Blaise pouted. "It's not like I *wanted* to look through Mister Malfoy's personal things…" 

Everyone laughed. "Yeah, sure, Blaise, you just happened to stumble over them", Draco mocked. 

Zabini gave him a friendly slap and handed Draco a present in plain wrapping. "Open it, that's mine!" 

Draco did as told. When he tore the wrapping off, he almost dropped the present in shock. "Wow! A Hand of Glory? That's so cool! Thank you, Blaise!" 

Said boy gave him a cheeky grin. "Yeah, I figured it would come in handy for you and Harry", he said in a serious voice. 

He received a glare from Draco and a nervous laugh from Harry for that remark. 

The next present to be opened were silver cuff links with green gems from Pansy. In her card she wrote that she'd remembered Draco's whining about having to take care of some of his father's businesses in the muggle world during the holidays and that he never knew what to wear. So when she told her muggle-born mother about that, the lady volunteered to take Pansy to a muggle jewellery store. 

While Blaise and Draco were discussing what Crabbe and Goyle would give him, they'd bring the Christmas presents with them when they came back to school, Harry went quietly over to his own bed. 

He wanted to open Hermione's and Ron's gifts before the others turned their attention to him since he wanted to avoid teasing. 

Harry smiled brightly as he opened the parchment-wrapped gifts from Ron. On top of a Weasley sweater laid a neatly folded poster of the Chuddley Cannons, a pack Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans and a small box of joke candy from Fred and George. "Thank you, Ron!", he whispered and slipped the letter into his robes pocket, just in case Blaise decided he needed to read Harry's mail as well as Draco's. 

Next Harry opened the gift from Hermione, which was easily to recognize because Herm naturally used muggle wrapping paper. 

The greeting card displaying a Christmas tree said that Hermione wished Harry wasn't too sad about having to stay at Hogwarts over Christmas because he needed to train for the Quidditch game. And that Hermione had found a charm to play magically muggle CDs during one of her long nights in the library, which she would now share with Harry. And so he could directly test the charm, she'd also given him a dozen CDs that she'd learned were the hits this year. 

Harry was just hovering with one hand over the stack of presents, having troubles to decide which he should open next, when Seamus noticed that Harry had sneaked off. 

"Hey, don't open anything without us!", Seamus exclaimed and hurried over to Harry's side, shortly after followed by the rest of the boys. 

The dark-haired boy heaved a sigh. "Well, which do you think I should open next?" 

"How about that one, that should be Snape's", Draco suggested, pointing to a present with green, silver-lined wrapping paper. "Let's look if he gave you newbies the same as us." 

When he's honest, Harry thought that Draco was going crazy. Why the heck would Snape ever give him a Christmas gift? But his curiosity got the better of him and he heeded Draco's advice. 

The gift turned out to be a leather-bound biography of Salazar Slytherin. 

And there was a small note attached to the book, bearing Snape's name. 

"Snape gives us a Christmas present every year", Blaise explained. "We also get one for our birthdays. He really isn't as bad a Head of House as you think, Harry, he truly cares for us Slytherins." 

Harry still wasn't close to believing Blaise, but he decided that he might just give Snape a chance, if he would only actually make an effort to treat him better. He'd to admit that it's kinda nice that Snape had given him a present, he didn't expected that he'd get one, even if the other Slytherins would. "What did you got in the previous years?", Harry asked curiously. 

"Oh, in our first year we got a book about the history of House Slytherin, for my last birthday I got new Quidditch gloves, Pansy got a cauldron two years ago that can't melt." With a small laugh and a wink at Neville, Blaise added, "I bet a hundred galleons on Neville getting such a cauldron, too." 

"Well, then I'm looking forward to my birthday." There was a large, but rather light box, which Harry decided to open next. 

Harry gasped. 

He eagerly opened the silky black box with the seal of a very exclusive tailor in Diagon Alley, which was lined from the inside with white velvet. 

Inside were new Quidditch robes for Harry, Slytherin robes made of finest materials with a card from Blaise laying on top of it. 

"Thank you, Blaise!", he said happily and hugged the teenager. Blaise was grinning at him, returning the hug. 

Harry picked up the next present, a small case wrapped in shining silver paper. 

"Hey, what's that?" 

"Glasses", Draco said matter-of-factly. 

"Yours?", Harry rather stated than asked. He's now all the more curious what Draco would give him, if Draco would give him a gift that wouldn't be either humiliating or cheap. 

Yes, there were indeed new glasses in the case, with a nice frame of real silver. 

"Thank you, Draco, they're very nice." 

"Oh Harry, you're so lucky!", Blaise gushed. "These are like the perfect glasses! My parents gave me for birthday the sunglasses variant of those and I wouldn't ever want to miss them, when it's sunny I wear them even away from the Quidditch pitch!" 

"I don't understand a word of what you're talking about, Blaise", Harry said, his voice laced with fond amusement. With every day that he spent with Blaise the self-appointed future Death Eater showed more and more of his real personality, which turned to Harry's surprise out to be actually quite fruity, and Harry enjoyed watching how Blaise's trust in him increased. 

Even if that did mean that Blaise also became more and more annoying… 

"These are Quidditch glasses, the glass won't ever splinter or break and the frame will never bend, even if you throw it from the Astronomy Tower. The frame will adjust perfectly to your head so the glasses will never slip or fall down, the glass will also adjust to your eyesight and to the illumination. If it's a bright day the glasses will protect you from the sun and when it's dark they'll be all clear to give you a good view." 

"Cool!" Harry leant over to give Draco a hug as well. Both boys felt rather awkward, this wasn't like the friendly hug between pals he'd shared with Blaise and they're both aware of it. But they couldn't show that the kiss had affected them, then they would be teased mercilessly by their friends. Make that even more mercilessly, because already now Blaise and Seamus were all the time nagging them to kiss again. 

Draco stayed stiff, feeling just as awkward and uncomfortable as Harry, somewhat glad when Harry drew back. But strangely, Draco also felt some remorse when Harry's body warmth left him. 

"Let's unpack the rest of your presents, Harry, and then I want to look at mine!", Seamus urged them on.   


After unpacking all presents, Slytherin House appointed Harry and Draco owl boys because those two were the ones who insisted that not everyone had to make the walk to the owlery just to send off the thank you-owls to families and friends. 

They walked in uncomfortable silence down the dungeon hallways, both boys blushing and staring at the ground beneath their feet as if it's the most interesting thing they'd ever seen. 

Now that they're away from the prying eyes of their friends, roommates and housemates, they could finally let the fake casualness fall off and give away just how nervous they felt in the other boys's presence. 

Just as Harry set one foot onto the first step of the narrow staircase that would lead them up to the ground level of Hogwarts, he collided with Draco, who'd attempted to climb up the stairs at the same time as him. 

In shock they dropped the each fifteen parchments they're holding. 

Draco groaned inwardly, now he'd have to spend even more time with Potter because of the other boy's stupidity. "Couldn't you have watched where you're going, Potter?!", he snapped. 

Harry was feeling a pang of disappointment upon hearing Draco call him by his surname again. In an unspoken agreement they'd started to call themselves by their first names and Harry had learned that he actually liked that. Now he aimed a glare and a scowl at the blond boy. "Why didn't *you* watched out, Malfoy?!" 

A heavy sigh left him. "Let's not start this again, Harry, I don't need an argument with you right now. Oh, and by the way, thank you for your present. Let's just pick up the scrolls and get them to the owlery so we can finally get to lunch." 

The ex-Gryffindor nodded in mute agreement and sat down on the cold stone floor to start the arduous task of picking up the countless scrolls which had rolled all over the long dungeon hallway and into some narrow passages.. 

Uneasy silence descended again on them. 

They'd gathered up half of the scrolls, when Draco looked up from his task, waiting for Harry to look up and catch his eye. When the emerald-eyed boy did, Draco gave him a wry half-smile. "I guess we should stay away from mistletoes from now on?" 

"Yeah, we probably should", Harry said in a voice that sounded almost regretful. As soon as he realized that, he immediately wanted to kick himself. How the hell could he insinuate that he just maybe wanted to kiss Draco again, surely the sly Malfoy would mercilessly tease him for his slip for the rest of the term. 

But strangely enough, Harry also realized that the thought of kissing Draco again didn't repulsed him. It's a pleasant thought and a part of his mind pointed out that it wouldn't mind having this thought become real. 

Immediately, Harry blushed furiously and ducked his head. 

Draco grinned a bit upon noting Harry's sudden embarrassment, and guessing correctly the cause for it. "We don't have to, though…", he added. 

Acting on pure impulse and telling common sense to go screw itself, Draco stood up, walked the few steps over to Harry's position leaning against a wall, and sat down again in front of him. 

Harry looked up, the surprise and confusion evident in his eyes. He searched for mocking or only the faintest trace of amusement in Draco's grey eyes, but found none. Only an unfathomable, intense gaze that burned itself into his memory. 

The pale boy raised one hand to Harry's face, running his thumb over the cheekbone. When Harry didn't flinched or yelled at him, only looked curiously at him, Draco slowly moved his face closer to Harry's, giving him sufficiently time to make Draco stop if only he wanted to, and kissed him. 

At first Harry was numbed, not from shock but from surprise. He wouldn't have ever in this life or any other expected Draco Malfoy to kiss him out of his free will, this was an idea that had been so far reserved for daydreams and dreams that left him confused and somewhat sad that the reality would always be a harsh disappointment compared to those dreams, because Draco Malfoy surely would never accept him, let alone kiss him.. 

But here the very same Slytherin was, doing exactly what Harry had thought impossible. 

One couldn't blame him for being paralysed with shock. 

But finally, just when Draco was about to give up hope that Harry would respond, physically about to draw back and emotionally preparing himself to regain his cold demeanour, Harry returned the kiss gently, hesitantly. 

He must be dreaming again, Harry had finally concluded, this could only be a dream, so it didn't made a difference if he returned this kiss now, there would be no consequences. 

Harry dropped the scrolls he'd been holding in his hands and wrapped his right arm around Draco's neck, let his hand rest over Draco's neck. 

When Draco pulled back because the need for oxygen had become too strong, Harry could've sworn that his heart had just stopped. 

Draco was smirking, the amusement was all too clear in his grey eyes. 

This wasn't supposed to happen in dreams. The dreams never before ended in Draco mocking him, the dreams were supposed to end happy, Harry thought numbly. 

There was no doubt in his mind that Draco would mock him now, that he'd make fun of him and tell all his friends that Harry Potter had been foolish enough to believe that he actually wanted to kiss him for any other reason than for gaining another trophy to brag about. 

"You know, I think we owe Blaise our thanks", Draco said in an amused voice. Wryness crept into his voice as he added, "though he's going to rub it in for at least the rest of our school time, that's going to be quite a joy." 

Harry laughed with relief. "And here I'd been thinking…", he whispered to himself. 

"Thinking what?", Draco prodded. 

Again embarrassment made Harry's head turn bright red. "Uh…" 

But Draco wouldn't let it go. "Tell me", he said in a firm voice. 

"I'd been afraid that you're only playing with me when I saw you smirk like that after we kissed", Harry said in a tiny voice. 

"I wouldn't have ever done that!", Draco protested. He's torn between feeling insulted because Harry could think of him to resort to such low means and at the same time he's flattered because Harry cared enough to worry. 

"I know that now", Harry agreed, shooting him an apologetic gaze. 

Draco tightened the grip he'd on Harry's jaw somewhat to reinforce his point, yet careful not to hurt him. "I'm a Slytherin, Harry, I'm very ambitious and willing to use whatever means necessary. But Slytherins never stab other Slytherins in the back, those we care about are untouchable for us." 

"And I'm immensely glad for that", Harry answered with a small smile on his face that quickly became larger and larger, until he's beaming. 

Harry couldn't believe his own luck, Draco had kissed him voluntarily and Draco didn't made fun of him, he also didn't tried to exploit the weakness Harry had given away. He's giddy with joy, even though the pessimistic part of Harry still was sceptical if this wasn't just a daydream. 

"Don't think so much, Harry", Draco urged the dark-haired boy on. 

"I can't. What does this mean? Where are we going to go from here?" 

"I don't know, Harry. I don't have a hint of a clue. But let's just not think about that now, let's not think about difficulties and what this means right now. There's later sufficient time for that, let's not spoil these moments." 

Harry read between the lines that they maybe wouldn't have more than a few moments or days, and after taking that into consideration, Harry had to agree with Draco's way of thinking. One of them would surely come to his senses quickly, either Harry who realized that he's kissing the heir of his greatest enemy's right hand man or Draco who realized that Harry would do too much harm to a possible Death Eater career. 

"Let's tell the others?" 

"No, not yet. Blaise and Seamus are tattletales, if he knows the whole wizarding world will know as well within 72 hours." 

The Boy Who Lived shuddered at the very thought of the consequences such thoughtless gossiping would have. God, he'd had enough trouble back during the TriWizard Tournament with Rita Skeeter, he didn't needed to feed the gossip anew. And even worse would be this time that Rita Skeeter would be writing for once in her life the truth… 

Draco also wasn't fond of that idea, he treasured his life, thank you very much. And his father certainly wouldn't be happy if he learned from the Daily Prophet that his only child had an affair with the enemy of his master, least of all once Voldemort himself found out about it. 

"Let's keep it a secret", Harry agreed. 

Draco drew reluctantly away from Harry and started to pick up the scrolls again. "Blaise will become suspicious if we take too long and don't have any injuries." 

"Yes, you're right", Harry said faintly. Actually, he didn't cared all that much if Blaise got suspicious, kissing Draco sounded right now considerably more attractive than gathering scrolls, but Harry had gotten to know Draco well enough in these weeks he spent in Slytherin to know that there's no chance to change Draco's mind when he had that determined expression on his face.   


Three quarters of an hour, some kissing and much hurrying later, Harry and Draco entered the Great Hall in their Slytherin-green dress robes on which Snape had insisted for all his students. 

Like for every Christmas, the Great Hall had been decorated beautifully. 

There were twelve Christmas trees standing in the Great Hall, the largest being so tall that it's tip reached the roof, instead of the four House tables and Head table, there was now only one large table for the students and teachers who stayed over Christmas. 

As he passed them, Harry wished the headmaster a merry Christmas and frowned as he caught sight of Jane Attwood and Sarah Mitchell, the Slytherin Chasers, sitting close to his friends. He couldn't stand the snobbish seventh and fourth years and wouldn't so much as look as them twice if it wouldn't be for them being his team mates. While those students in Harry's own years and the children had accepted him as a Slytherin, some older Slytherins saw in him only the enemy of Lord Voldemort or an intruder into their close-knit family. 

"Hello", Harry said to his friends and the other Slytherins staying, while he decided to just ignore the two girls, who're shooting disdainful looks at him. "Say, Blaise, are you trying to win a contest or something?" Blaise was not only wearing his best dress robes, but had also trimmed himself up as if he's about to join one of those muggle beauty contests Harry had read about when he's with the Dursleys during the summer holidays. 

Blaise flashed him a wicked grin. "Maybe, Harry, who knows…" 

Harry rolled his eyes at Blaise's attempt to appear secretive and mysterious. Blaise had decided during Quidditch practice last night that he would look even more appealing if he would act like a big question mark and already it annoyed Harry to no end. 

"Say, boys, took you awfully long to bring the letters to the owlery and change into your dress robes…", Seamus commented wickedly. 

Draco felt like running against a wall with his head first, or casting Cruciatus on himself. 

Why couldn't those terrible monsters who called themselves his friends ever give it a rest? 

Dumbledore standing up saved Draco and Harry for the moment from further questions. "My dear students and teachers, I know you're all starving and want to start with the feast, so I won't hold any long speeches. I wish you all a merry Christmas and enjoy the feast!" 

The headmaster clapped his hands and a moment later there appeared more food on the table than could've been devoured if the whole school had been here. 

Of course students and teachers immediately started to try and prove that assumption wrong by eating more of the mouth-watering dishes than could have ever been healthy for them. 

Madame Pomfrey would have the hospital wing later crowded with stomachache patients, so much was sure. 

Over the table, Harry caught Draco's eye and smiled shyly at him. 

When the smile was returned, his smile turned into a full-fledged beam.   


To be continued…   


Don't worry, Attwood and Mitchell aren't going to appear often and won't turn into Mary Sues. I just wanted to show by their example that not everyone in Slytherin likes it that the Dark Lord's enemy (and the heir of Gryffindor, as well as son of a muggle-born witch) is in their House and that some people still hate Harry in there. And since they'd already been mentioned earlier, I figured I would use those two teen snobs. 

The fifth year Slytherins accepted Harry, Neville and Seamus simply because they're now some of their own, but those Slytherins in the years above him (in particular those from the old-money families with ties to dear uncle Voldie) as well as those younger who're too old to be overly impressed by his reputation, namely third and fourth years, don't feel any obligation to him. 

And I can understand them, for four and a half years Harry and his friends have been the enemies of Slytherin House, they had to stick together because no one else would like to have anything to do with Slyths for the bad reputation Voldie had earned them and suddenly their group is torn apart and the places of their friends are taken by enemies. I also wouldn't be happy if my friends were all taken away from me and I would have to live with people who always scorned me. 

Just wanted to explain that, so you won't fear I'm going to insert Mary Sues. 

I also got here a link for you to a very fascinating essay about Slytherins, their motives and how they're treated/perceived from the other Houses. Narcissa has done a wonderful job, the best explanation of House Slytherin that I've ever read.   


I can't write Hagrid-accent, so I had to make him speak normal. 

And last but not least… hope you enjoyed this instalment! 

In the next chapter we'll find out if Draco or Harry chickens out, how the other Slytherins react and if maybe someone tells Draco's parents…   
  



End file.
